A sight to remember

By MADDIE DAVIS
Sheridan High School Student

Editor’s note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade honors English class, taught by Tanya Busailah.

I play volleyball and am on the varsity cheer team for both football and basketball. I’ve lived in Sheridan my whole life and both of my parents live in Sheridan. As a sophomore in high school, I have never seen the Northern Lights or learned about them. However, I recently had the opportunity to see them through my cellphone camera.

It was Oct. 10, 2024. I was sitting at home about to go to bed and my dad called me and told me to hurry outside because something crazy was going on.

I rush outside and see him sitting in my hot tub taking pictures of the sky. I walked up and he showed me the most amazing photos he took. There were greens, blues, purples, and reds all around us, yet when I looked up all I saw was the normal dark color of the night sky. It was one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had. It was so confusing because I knew that the Northern Lights existed, but I never would have thought I would be able to see them in my backyard. It also brought up many different questions, like: Why are they in Indiana? What makes them happen? Why can I only see them through my phone camera?

The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, happen due to geomagnetic storms. According to PBS News, a geomagnetic storm is “a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity.” It happens when charged particles from the sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field. This could either cause the Aurora Borealis or affect satellites and power systems.

Seeing the Northern Lights is the only way most people can experience space weather. The Northern Lights normally occur in the auroral oval around the north pole. This oval consists of Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and parts of Alaska. We could see the Aurora Borealis in October because there was a severe geomagnetic storm that caused the Northern Lights to spread farther down to us. It was only visible for seven hours. It was visible all across the U.S., except Hawaii. It was seen as far as Florida and even in urban areas like New York City. It was also visible in Europe, as far south as Turkey, and was also seen in China.

Photo provided

There are many reasons why I could only see the Aurora Borealis through my phone camera. One of them is that our eyes are a lot less sensitive to light than our phone camera is. Another reason is because of the long exposure settings on phone cameras. Using long exposure on your camera settings allows the camera to collect more light over a longer period, making the faint lights more visible. One last reason is that the color perception of our eyes versus the camera is different. While our eyes would see the faint Auroras as mostly grey or white, the camera can pick up colors more clearly and easily.

I never thought seeing the Northern Lights at my age would be possible, but because of the severe geomagnetic storm on Oct. 10, I was able to see it through my phone camera.

Seeing it came with many questions, but I’m glad I finally got to answer them. For example, I was able to figure out why the Aurora Borealis even happened. I was also able to figure out why it happened so far down from its usual spots. Lastly, I found out why it was that I was only able to see it through my phone camera.

I hope that one day I will be able to see the Northern Lights with my own eyes.