Aurora Borealis October 10 & 11, 2024

Pinch me!  Am I dreaming?  Because this is what dreams are made of!  It was an unbelievable eight hours stretching from 8:00pm last night until 4:00am this morning!  As I put together this blog post of my experience witnessing the Aurora Borealis, it's 5:45am and I still have not gone to bed!  Bed time will have to wait until tonight!  

Just after dinner, I began to watch the "My Aurora Forecast"' website.   Conditions were looking favourable for a good opportunity to see the Northern Lights.  As people were sharing photos of their sightings from Europe and then Eastern Canada, I hoped we would be as fortunate here in Calgary.  I left home shortly before seven and drove to the parking lot for Nose Hill.  I had a place in mind where I wanted to be up there and I wanted to get up there before it was pitch dark.

The sun just set as I hiked up the dirt trail to higher hills.  

I arrived at my spot around 7:30 and meandered about here and there not venturing too far.  This was the view as I looked to the northern sky. There were lots of clouds which is not a good thing but I hoped for the best.   

To pass the time, I watched the clouds dance around the moon.  I chatted with a few others who were heading further along the trail.  I took photos with my big camera, my little camera and my iPhone.  It was around 8:00pm when I began to feel cold so pulled out my down vest and while I was putting it on, I turned around and saw something in the sky I had never seen before.  When what to my wandering eyes should appear!

The Aurora Borealis came to life!  

All my Aurora photos were taken with my iPhone, which I just pointed and shooted!  I needed to be still for three seconds while it captured the photo.  Pinch me is this for real?  Am I dreaming?  I was speechless! I felt a lump in my throat and my lips quivered!  My eyes watered!  These are a few of the over one hundred special seconds in time that I captured in a half hour.   At 8:30 the show stopped so I began to hike down the hill and back to my car, with the assistance of my head lamp.

When I got home, I downloaded my photos and picked out the ones I wanted to share.  I moved them directly into the blog post so they would be ready for when I was ready to add my story. I made a warm beverage and sipped it while checking out what photos other locals had to share.  I checked the "My Aurora Forecast" again and Calgary was in the red meaning the strongest.  I looked out my back door and low and behold the Aurora Borealis was dancing with full force!  I bundled up, grabbed my hot beverage and iPhone then sat out on my deck from roughly 1:00am until just before 4:00. The Northern Lights never stopped dancing!  These are just a few of the dozens and dozens of sights that I captured.   

This is the Aurora forecast at 3:30 this morning.

I went onto the Sunshine Ski Hill webcam and watched the live Aurora webcam. 

I also took screen shots of two of the webcams.

 

This is a screen shot of a very small part of my photo album.

As I finish writing my story, after looking at all my photos many times, I still wonder is this all a dream!  This is the Thanksgiving long weekend and I have so much to be thankful for!