The Northern Lights
Image: Brian Drourr
Great Lakes residents are using resources like Great Lakes Aurora Hunters and Soft Serve News to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. Aurora enthusiasts use the sites to connect, discuss and share photos of the natural phenomenon.
The Great Lakes Aurora Hunters Facebook group has become increasingly popular, even extending outside of the Great Lakes region. The group features daily updates from experts like forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and amateur photographers trying to capture the Northern Lights.
“It’s a heck of a rabbit hole to go down,” said Brian Drourr, an aurora hunter from Burlington, Vermont. “I have loved every single aurora adventure I’ve been on, whether I see them or not.”
Drourr began his aurora adventures by researching a solar event that was widely publicized in Vermont. But it wasn’t long before he was attempting to find the lights on a nightly basis, he said.
“It’s addicting, really. You can’t go hunting the aurora just once. It gets in your blood. It takes over your day-to-day thoughts. Next thing you know, you’re out every night looking for new spots to shoot from, tracking solar activity and teaching about the aurora.”
Matt Herberg, an aurora hunter from Virginia, Minnesota, began photographing the aurora while he was originally out to photograph the Milky Way. “The Northern Lights were out big time and I decided to start chasing after those too.”
Neither Drourr nor Herberg said he considers himself a science expert, but that their love of hunting the aurora has motivated them to research as much into it as possible.
For beginners, both Herberg and Drourr recommend getting advice from experienced chasers through the Great Lakes Aurora Hunters group and keeping an eye on Soft Serve News to see whether the Northern Lights will be visible in the region.
Soft Serve News began as a celebrity news site, according to editor Jim Thomas of Chicago. Thomas decided to change the direction of the website and write about what he was most passionate about — finding the aurora. The main premise of the site: When can non-scientists see the Northern Lights in the U.S.?
“If you’re in Alaska, Norway or Iceland, it happens all the time. But once you get down to the Great Lakes area, it has to be a strong storm. And it has to be at night with good local weather,” said Thomas.
One of Thomas’ most memorable aurora-hunting experiences was in Wisconsin.
“It was 3:30 in the morning, I was driving around because my usual dark spot wasn’t working. It was freezing and I had to go to work the next morning. Then I saw this green crown hovering in the sky and I was like ‘oh that’s weird, what is that?’ I was like ‘oh my God, it’s the aurora!’ I started jumping up and down.”
According to Thomas, seeing the aurora with bare eyes was almost magical. “I felt like I was a millionaire when I saw something that. I was like ‘wow, no one can take this away this is so beautiful.’”
In addition to checking web resources, Herberg recommends getting as far away from light pollution as possible to increase the chance of the lights being visible.
Drourr said the use of a camera increases the vibrant colors of the lights.
Drourr said that to the naked eye, the aurora “often looks like shimmering white-grey-green fog on the horizon that seems to move or shimmer out of the corner of the eye,” but a camera with slow shutter speed will bring out a wide range of colors.
Drourr, Herberg and Thomas all advise aspiring hunters to possess one thing: patience.
“The aurora is a fickle lady and she only comes out on her terms,” said Drourr. “Be patient, have fun with it and be sure to dance a little where ever you are when you first see them because it really is a magical sight to behold.”