It was an ordinary day. Reading about the staff photographer at Lancaster Newspaper, Blaine Shahan, attempting to take a photograph of the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, for some time. He thought he would have to take a trip north for that to happen. Then, earlier this year, he saw posts on social media with pictures of the northern lights nearby. The farthest south I'd seen them was in Maryland, Blaine said, which suggested I might get to see them in Pennsylvania. On October 5, I saw a Facebook post that the northern lights might be visible after sunset. So, I took a ride to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Clay Township because there's a good view of the northern sky from the parking lot by the boat ramp, and it's really dark there. When I arrived, it was obvious I wasn't the only one interested in seeing this. With the darkness, it was hard to tell how many people were there, but I'll say there were at least a couple dozen. I set up my camera on a tripod and waited. I shot a few pictures of the stars over the lake, but I didn't see any northern lights. Earlier that day, I had installed an app in my phone that shows indicators of the aurora borealis, and at that time, it was showing aa 0% probability of seeing them. I stayed there for the better part of two hours, then called it a night. Five days later, on October 10, I saw social media posts again that the northern lights might be visible. I checked the aurora app, and now the viewing probability was 1%. That was good enough for me, and I headed out the door. As I walked to my car, at 7:30- p.m., I could see a red glow flickering in the sky above the houses across the street, which I photographed. It's about a 45-minute drive from my home in Lancaster Township to Middle Creek, but I thought that would be the best place for me to see and photograph them. When I arrived at the boat ramp at middle Creek, the parking lot was almost full. Once again it was dark, so I couldn't see all the people, but I'm guessing it was close to 100 if you count the people by the boat ramp, along the shoreline and people who stopped at other places close by. Like the previous Saturday, I set up my camera on a tripod and waited. I didn't see anything in the sky, but when I took a picture with a long exposure, I could see a green band running across the sky just above the horizon. At that time, I wan't sure if the green glow I was seeing was the northern lights or not. I shot more pictures with different exposures trying to find my sweet spot. Then, at just about 10 p.m., the sky started to light up again. People around me were commenting, and some were cheering as yellow, green and red lights flickered across the sky. The picture I'm sharing today is a 6-second exposure. This means that in this image, you're seeing the flickering that happened over a 6-second period. What I was at 10 also confirmed that the green band that I saw an hour earlier was the northern lights. Blaine's method was: Nikon D4 camera with a Nikon 24-70 mm lens zoomed out to 24 mm. Exposure time was: Six seconds, with an aperture of f-7.1 at 3200 ISO. I have tried to take photos such as what you see here for years, but have never been successful, thus I have given up. I'm so glad I had the chance to see and read about Blaine's photographs that he successfully took of the aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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