The solar storm that hit a couple of days ago had a followup. And tonight, I didn’t just stay in the backyard.
What I wanted to do was truck out to the north, or maybe even out to Mossleigh, and get some really good views of a dark sky or with something else interesting in the view.
But as you might recall, we’re very busy. And I’m working too much. And I only see that it’s a problem in retrospect, never when I’m actually in it.
So I only went as far as Range Road 32 in Springbank.
Normally, that’s not far enough away from the city. Calgary, despite its change to LED lighting over the last decade, glows like a beacon, all but obliterating subtleness in the skies.
The key word, there, by the way, is “subtle”. Tonight’s show was anything but.
To be fair, I suspect it would have been more fantastic about 20-30 kms to the north, Dogpound area, where the show earlier in the year had been. That was brilliant, as well. But even in Springbank, for the mere 2(?) hours I was out there, the show was amazing.
I was turning myself constantly, trying to follow the waves as they washed across the shore of the sky, drawing long coloured lines, rivulets of light. Cars came and went as people came out for brief looks, then vanished home again.
The show rose and fell, then rose and crescendoed and fell back to a low constant soundless tune, playing notes that would have been the background track to a great thriller, if anyone had been playing along. (Honestly, I wonder if anyone’s tried to turn aurora into music… c’mon, internet, get on with that!)
I would not be around for the second or third acts, however. I have a 7am call with my team, which means my butt needs to be home, in bed, and getting at least enough sleep that my Apple Watch isn’t casting shade at my lacklustre sleep habits.
I can only hope we’ll get another show like this before the sun’s activity starts waning. I don’t want to have to wait another 11 years.
