The Northern Lights have roughly an 11 year solar cycle. Peak time of that cycle is 2024-2026, so now is the time to check off your bucket list!

I know that is easier said than done.
I have had Northern Lights on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, and I do not consider it accomplished by seeing this display in my front yard.
If anything it has become more important since learning how to photography astro images.

What I have always wanted to see is naked eye, dancing lights. So bright, active, and magnificent I have a difficult time editing them because I can barely find a blank area in my sky.

I want images with streaks of aurora like a phoenix and a dragon, curtains of depth. Images with a swirl of white and colorful lights in the middle and clear dark perfectly starry sky on the edges. Photos with so much impact that I remember the experience forever, and I have a dream to share it through stories that strongly resonate with your soul.

What this little display of Northern Lights in my front yard makes me feel is not accomplished, but lucky! I am looking forward to finding this luck again soon, with a local foreground worthy of the appearance of the dancing lady, but it is not good enough. I still long to fulfill the wish of really experiencing them, chasing them through the cold dark night of the North, colors so bright they punch me in the face.