Wordless Wednesday

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Friday Fascination

Because we are in a seemingly endless heat dome...

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

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Night Lights

10 October 2024

I've longed for clear skies when aurora borealis has been forecasted for my area since May of 2024, when I caught my first glimpse of very pale pink in the night sky. We finally enjoyed full-fledged northern lights in October of last year. Best night of my life!

1 June 2025

We've had many chances during this solar maximum for the last 13 months. On the best viewing nights, however, we're either overcast (of which I can't complain because we need the rain) and/or Lizard isn't up for a road trip to break free from cloud cover.

1 June 2025

Areas outside Denver's obnoxious light pollution got amazing views Sunday night. Some areas enjoyed dancing colors in the sky Saturday night, too. I couldn't see even faint color, thanks to Denver city lights.

31 May 2025

On a whim, I decided to see if my cell phone could pick up the Milky Way. I'd tried back in 2018 with a real camera, and light pollution pretty much killed that attempt. It was fun to reminisce that night with Lizard. That was a week before his Parkinson's diagnosis. We knew something was wrong, but we didn't know yet what. We were trying to make the best of it, just in case the diagnosis turned out to be ALS.

11 August 2018

I'd forgotten to take a real camera with me this time. All I had was my cell phone. I tried a couple of shots, then came home to heavily edit them. I couldn't believe how awesome the shot turned out, even though it needed a ton of manipulation and isn't the clearest or best Milky Way shot. It turned my night of disappointment into the most giddy feeling I've had since the October northern lights!

1 June 2025

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Friday Fantastic

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better luck next time

I knew we had a good chance of northern lights in Colorado on New Year's Eve, but Lizard wasn't comfortable taking a drive when all the "crazies" and "drunks" would be out in force. Parkinson's often comes with a good dose of anxiety. I've learned to modify my dreams and goals to help make his life as pleasant as possible.

We had too much cloud cover and metro city light to view the aurora borealis from home this time around.

I stepped out in the very light snow on our driveway about six times throughout the night, just in case.

I'm so thankful we have the technology (and internet bandwidth!!!) to be able to enjoy the northern lights whenever they happen!

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Friday Fantastic

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The Chase

heavily photoshopped, no regrets

We got to see the Northern Lights!!!

For a couple months now, I've hoped we could go far north when northern lights were expected to break into Wyoming and Colorado. Last Thursday was the first time I was actually able to leave home to chase the aurora borealis. I am officially addicted now!

tiny hints of northern lights over the Denver metro

We watched the weather and smoke forecasts prior to the big event. We'd planned to go to Estes Park and drive up Trail Ridge Road. The forecast there, though, was cloudy and possibly stormy. So we thought perhaps Fort Collins or Cheyenne. But both were forecast to be too smoky. So were Fort Morgan and Sterling.

The only north part of the state, which was about all Lizard thought he could handle, with a possibility of clear skies was directly east. I thought perhaps Last Chance might be far enough from the metro city lights for us to see what I expected to be a tiny band of color.

Denver metro northern lights

Neither of us had ever been to Last Chance, so we didn't know we passed right through it. We kept thinking we would find this little town with the final gas station before the Kansas state line. I could see what looked like smoke to the north. I kept trying to look for color as we passed through one tiny little blip on the map after another. Nothing was open.

Last Chance

Finally, at 8 p.m., I noticed two beams of white emanating from the "cloud" of smoke. I knew that wasn't smoke. I told Lizard we found northern lights, and I pulled over on the very next county road, which had power lines, but what we saw was so overwhelming, I didn't mind the distractions.

straight out of camera

Once I got out of the car, the white "cloud" was no longer white. The tint on the car windows had camoflaged the pink and green. The naked eye view wasn't intense, but it was most definitely northern lights, and I could see them! I snapped a phone photo, and it captured an explosion of color! I'd heard that often happens, that the aurora is more dramatic via digital images.

straight out of camera

We watched the lights dance all the way up over our heads for about 15 or 20 minutes. I took a few photos. The wind was blowing, so I had a hard time keeping the tripods still, but my phone has image stabilization, so my photos aren't too bad, in my opinion. They are not perfect, but they captured what might be one of the best nights of my life.

filtered

We decided to continue looking for Last Chance because I was getting low on fuel. Next thing we knew (had to wait a long time for cell phone signal), we were 39 miles from Burlington, where I hoped we could get gas. Gas was available, but food was not. Both of us were hungry. All we had in the car were cheese crackers, cashews and a few chocolate mint wafer cookies. Oh, and one bottle of water.

filtered

We kept seeing fields of flashing red lights. Lizard thought they might be directional assistance for flights. We noticed the outline of a windmill, and Lizard announced, "They are windmills, and a lot of them!" Boy, there really were! Fields and fields full of them for miles!

All the way back into the metro area, almost everything was closed. It was after midnight, and both of us were hungry. We finally found a McDonald's in Limon. I didn't know what I was going to eat; I don't eat beef because it's too hard for me to digest. They had chicken Big Macs!

We got home about 2 a.m., so it was a long day. We both were so exhaused, we both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows. I think we both will be dreaming about northern lights for many days to come!

heavily photoshopped, no regrets

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

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