It’s that time of year when the northern lights – or more accurately, the Aurora Borealis – is typically seen. In the digital and social media age, this means it’s the time of year when there are pictures plastered everywhere.

So, when I was told that a solar storm was headed our way – yes, there is such this as space weather – and I realized that we would actually have a clear night, I decided to take advantage of that and the reasonably nice weather to try my hand at some astrophotography. Yes, this is my very first attempt at taking pictures of the auroras.

Of course, I had no idea where to actually go to take pictures here. So much light pollution! I thought of Diefenbaker hill first, but when I got there, I realized that they have the lights on on full blast and that simply will not do for any kind of night photography! So, my next idea was out by Wanuskewin Park. I knew the park would be closed, but I was hoping at least the parking lot would be open. Alas, it wasn’t, but the surrounding area was both dark enough and quiet enough for me to spend some time taking pictures.

I tried my 8mm fish eye first, but I think the auroras need to be bigger for it to be of any interest so I switched to my 18-70mm. I can’t really explain the odd rings in the centre of the pictures. A quick Google search was rather disappointing, but I’ll investigate more. Needless to say, this is something I want to do more of because it was just so beautiful and peaceful!

Here are my unedited results: