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Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• Ancestors 2006  • New Arrivals 2006
• The Hut Inn Re-opens
Eight years ago on the Pasty Cam: 12/11/98^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Eight years ago, Jonathan Hopper caught this magnificent display of the northern lights from his home in Eagle River. With so much cloud cover most Decembers, it can be difficult to catch the Aurora. When you do, though, you remember why you've chosen to live here.

Morning!

Good morning from Ohio!!

Holy smokes! What a shot of the Northern Lights. We had that view 2 years ago in early November. Couldn't believe the magnificence of it all.

Good morning!

That's an awesome picture of the northern lights! It's also something that we don't get to see very often down in the Middle of the Mitt!

Good morning from high atop the General Motors Vec Tower in Warren. Only 2 weeks and then off to Green Bay, Whitelaw and then Dollar Bay for the Holidays eh.

Great shot of the Aurora Borealis. Good photos can be tricky to get, but with a little patience, you can get some very nice pics. I have some from when I was doing research work on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay a number of years ago. They were so bright we didn't need laterns to see our way at night. The colors were also incredible....

I assume most people know how they are formed?? ;-)

Capt. Paul, something to do with the ions from the sun? Aw go on, let's get the right facts!

Never had the chance to see the "lights" yet. I'm sure when I finally do I won't believe my eyes!

I'll take a shot at it...I've heard the Northern Lights are the result of light reflecting off the polar ice cap and the ice crystals in the air over that area.

It has nothing to do with the polar ice caps; we would still see the lights if there were no ice at the poles.

The Aurora Borealis originates from the Sun. During large solar flares, huge quantities of solar particles in the form of plasma clouds race towards Earth. Once they near our atmosphere, they are captured by the magnetic field and directed towards Earth's magnetic poles. On their way towards the poles, the atmosphere blocks these particles and the resulting collisions between particle and gas molecule emits a photon, or light particle. When you have millions of collisions (over 100 million or so), you get the Northern or Southern Lights. The solar winds gives the appearence of the Lights to "dance" across the night sky.

Another question that I get sometimes is "why are the Northern Lights different colours"? The answer lies with what type of gas the solar particles are colliding with. The usual yellow to green colours are caused from collisions with oxygen, although if those collisions happen very high in the ionosphere, those oxygen molecules can create a very rare red aurora. Nitrogen also creates a red light, but in the lower parts of the ionosphere and usually fringing the curtains. Hydrogen and helium make the blues and purples that are occasionally seen.

If you want to see a smaller scale version of the Aurora Borealis, just look at a neon sign the next time your out and about; it's the same principle.....

So red is rare? The only time I saw those lights dancing in the sky was one september in NH - bright red. Awe-some.

Found out some Aurora Borealis trivia!

The finest display of the Northern Lights seen in southern Finland within living memory appeared in the sky on the nights of April 6th and 7th, 2000. In Helsinki, about as far south as you can go in Finland, hundreds of excited people roused their friends from sleep in the small hours with the words, "Don't ask, just go outside now, you won't believe your eyes."

Has anyone seen this? Maybe Jarmo?

I did see a very strange occurence in Lansing several years ago. It was night time and all the lights looked like they were being beamed straight up to the sky. It was very weird looking; sort of like something alien. What would have caused this phenomenon?

There was a huge event in the Keweenaw in March and April of 1994. I remember spending many clear evenings at McLain and Waterworks and at times they were bright enough to see your shadow on the beach. The best I have even seen though were the ones on the Belcher Islands, as I mentioned before. Those ones were bright enough that we wandered from tent to tent without a lantern!!

There was also another event that took place in late July of 2004 right over Houghton. Some of our "students" from the TESI program got some great pictures of the Lights that occurred directly overhead of Houghton/Hancock. For a couple of those 2004 photos and others, plus a wealth of information, goto the link below:

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/

Hello and good afternoon to all dears friends there in around Pastys coverage area!!!

Yes - a few once can see year during this phenomenon..this word in finnish is REVONTULET (english = Northern Lights). I live in west Finland and about 300 kilometres farther down as
midpoint.. in up northern (Lapland) these Northern Lights (Revontulet) are much more common and powerful and very many-coloured!! Well much foreigns tourist travel just to LAPLAND that can see these..often can be seen as is cold and frost! This link from google; http://images.google.fi/images?hl=fi&q=revontulet&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Jarmo, you are so lucky the "Revontulet" pictures were absolutely breath-taking. The colors were so brilliant!

Joanie; I am right LUCKY FELLOW as I can and get be in making (contact) Your with and everybody others peoples those who live there around in Michigan and USA!!! I am very gratefully.. .and so glad also!

Thank you Capt. Paul, those pictures of the "Revontulet" were also amazing. What a beautiful way of nature making her own "fireworks"!

Jarmo, I am right LUCKY GIRL to be making contact with you also!

Capt. Paul,

I just did a little internet tour of the Belcher Islands. That must have been a very memorable research project. Looking at the islands with Google Earth I see a very interesting and challenging geology. Wildlife and aurora borealis viewing must have been incredible. Did you get to see any polar bears, walrus, reindeer, whales, etc. Thanks for your contributions to Pasty.com.

Link to a Belcher Islands web site:

Ooooops. It would be a little more informative if I had pasted the link. Will try to remember to do it with this note.

http://www.mitiq.com/belcher-islands.htm

It is a most facinating island to study. The geology is mostly quartzites with a few volcanics. As far as wildlife, we saw the reindeer and snowy owls a lot. We thought we saw a whale, but it turned out to be a couple guys on a kayak.