By Gary Randall
The Mountain Times
The Northern Lights have always fascinated me. When I was a little boy, I was curious about Alaska. I enjoyed reading Jack London books. White Fang and Klondike Tales, To Build a Fire were my favorite stories. The backdrop to many Alaska stories are the Northern Lights. It took me until I was 55 years old to make it to Alaska where, on the first night, I was greeted by a beautiful aurora that resembled soft, glowing green curtains being blown by a subtle breeze. I was in awe, but that was not technically my first time seeing the lights.
About two years prior to my trip to Alaska I remember being asked what my dream photo would be. I had to think but I answered that I think that it would be the Northern Lights in the sky over Mount Hood. I knew in my head that would be an impossible photo. Within a year I had taken a photo of the Aurora over Mount Hood. I cannot really say that I saw them with my eyes, but my camera was a witness. I was taking photos at Trillium Lake and could see color on the preview screen but the best that I could perceive was a faint, white glow as if there was a town just over the horizon. I was curious. This was eleven years ago. We are currently at the height of the sun’s next eleven-year cycle.
Last month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the first time in 19 years. It was so strong that there were predictions of disruptions of power grids and GPS and communication systems but fortunately disruptions were limited. Because of such a large solar storm the aurora was seen as far south as the Florida Keys. Our own skies here on The Mountain were not excluded. Mountain residents were taking photos of beautiful magenta, purple and green skies with their cameras and phones. It was an incredible show. The columns of light and the shifting colors were clearly visible to the eye but the photos that were coming from the cameras were amazing.
I’m sure that (as I did eleven years ago), many were wondering why the photos appeared so much more vivid. It would be easy to say that the camera just gathers more light and perceives more color than our eyes, but that isn’t really what’s happening. It’s not that the camera sees more, it is because our eyes see less.
In my research to try to understand why my camera was seeing differently from me, I needed to understand some biology and a little anatomy. I learned a little about how the eye works and how we perceive light and color. Our eyes have what are called rods and cones which are photoreceptors that play a critical role in our ability to see. Rods are responsible for peripheral and night vision, while cones are responsible for color and central vision. When we look at the aurora at night our eyes use the rods to detect the overall brightness and movement of the display, but because the cones are not as effective at night, we see less color. The lights are more apt to appear pale white with a slight color than bright and vivid like the camera is seeing.
So the photos you see represent what was happening that night, but unfortunately, because of our limited ability to see color at night, our naked eye missed much of that show. Knowing this doesn’t diminish the experience, but it might justify the fantastic color in your photos.