Northern Lights over Muenster, Saskatchewan

Aurora Borealis after midnight   © SB

When I came back to my room after midnight, I looked out to discover there were Northern Lights.

Most of the others were sleeping, but in the morning, I learned of those who'd never seen the solar winds dance.

They insisted I wake them if we're ever together when I see the Aurora again...

They want to watch the lights crawl from the horizon, pour from the zenith, shape-shift from harp strings to curtains to frogs and a pair of high kicking Can-Can dancers legs.

As I do... And I will... (And I hope they don't mind the 2 a.m. knock on the door, when it comes. At least that way, though, I'll have company to go light-seeking outside, instead of taking pictures through my bedroom window!)

Often, the Aurora follow solar flares, but for the February display, this was the oh-so-poetic cause: 

Magnetic fields in the interplanetary medium have tipped south, opening a crack in Earth's defenses against the solar wind. (SpaceWeather.com)

 What amazing light flows when defences are down!

Swirls of green and pink Northern Lights across the Eastern Sky. (Yes, I should have gone outside to look
to the North, but it was very late, very dark, very cold, and I was alone.) © SB

Ribbons and curtains of Northern Lights,seen from St. Peter's Abbey, Muenster, SK.  © SB

What are these? Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.  

Location: St. Peter's Abbey, Muenster, Saskatchewan
Photo dates: February 19, 2014. 

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