The “Fire in the Sky” Experience
Brilliant red auroras – clearly & strongly visible to the naked eye – surge over Jordan Pond in Maine’s Acadia National Park on October 10, 2024 at 7 pm Eastern Time. Situated along America’s Eastern Seaboard, this was the beginning of a national event upon which millions of people across all 50 states and Canada got to experience the grandeur of the northern lights.
I was near the end of a 12-day leaf-peeping bucket list trip when news of a CME (coronal mass ejection) impacting Earth got the aurora siren sounding. Suddenly, I found myself on the front lines since the East Coast was the first part of the continent to enter nighttime and therefore the first to encounter the aurora-generating effects of this massive geomagnetic storm surge.
And WOW, what a surge! It was barely dark when the entire sky exploded with red auroras, perhaps the brightest reds I’d ever seen! I was so excited to do leaf-peeping photography AT NIGHT and to see the orange, yellow & red autumn foliage glowing with warm auroral ambiance. No doubt this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me in a very unique setting in Acadia, Maine, over 3300 miles away from my Alaskan home.
I have never seen so many people posting colorful aurora photos. Cumulatively, it was perhaps the most hero shots ever taken in North America in one night! Congratulations to everyone who had eyes on the sky and got to witness the power of the aurora.
