StormEffects
Northern Lights 2024
All Photographs © Brian A. Morganti
East Central Pennsylvania - Northern Berks County
Morning of August 12, 2024
Another in a series of strong geomagnetic storms occurred on the night of August 11-12, 2024 that was visible in the middle latitudes of the United States and as far south as New Mexico. The display was somewhat brief but was one of the most vivid I had ever photographed. It also coincidently occurred during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower! As luck would have it we had exceptionally clear skies that night and my plan was to get out to my favorite countryside viewing area by about 1:30am local time. I was aware there might be an aurora display but was primarily concerned with trying to photograph some meteors streaking across the sky. That quickly changed soon after I set up my tripod and camera when I noticed the obvious flicker of the northern lights dancing to my north. I changed my camera settings for the aurora display and took quite a few photographs from about 2:00 am until 3:45 am EDT with the best display lasting only about 30-40 minutes. That being said the fainter displays remained visible until the brightening skies right before sunrise. It was during that time that I switched back to meteor photography, but managed only a handful of meteor captures. Once again I used my Canon R6 Mark II mounted with a Canon RF15-35mm f2.8L wide angle lens. Since the display was rather active I opted for short exposures between 2.5 & 6 seconds at ISO3200...all at f2.8 aperture. The Kp index for my area registered as high as 7.6 with the Ovation Model measuring between 100 & 200 Gw during the peak of the short-lived event. Anything over 100Gw usually indicates a severe solar storm is occurring. Below are a few of the better displays starting with the peak of the storm and then gradually fading towards dawn, at which time I captured a couple of the Perseid meteors. All images were taken from the countryside of northern Berks County about 20 miles north of Reading, Pennsylvania
2:11am EDT: One of the first images taken. The display was visible to the eye.
2:18am EDT: The display was ramping up and the fast motion of the lights was apparent to the naked eye!
2:22am EDT: The display continues to brighten and is increasing in size towards the zenith.
2:24am EDT: This was one of my favorite images and even with a 15mm aperture it simply was not possible to capture the entire width and height of the display.
2:25am EDT: This images was taken to the west (left) of the previous image. Notice the pronounced "orange" coloration of the aurora near the bottom center of the frame, a color that is rarely seen in aurora displays.
2:44am EDT: I took this two shot panoramic image as the display was beginning to fade somewhat, but was still an impressive for this far south! I took quite a few more images after this one, but the show got less and less interesting
4:35am EDT: A Perseid streaking in the northern sky as daylight approaches. A faint glow of the northern lights is still somewhat evident along the northern horizon. 25 second exposure at ISO 400 - aperture 25mm.
4:37am EDT: Another Perseid, this time in the northeastern sky. 25 second exposure at ISO 400 - aperture 25mm.
5:22am EDT: Looking east as Sunrise Approaches with a Mars-Jupiter conjunction near the top center of the photos. Can you spot the constellation of Orion rising above the cloud deck?
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