On March 30, 2001, a pair of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) from the sun slammed into the Earth's upper atmosphere. That evening, they resulted in a beautiful aurora that was visible as far south as Mexico! At my latitude (39 degrees north), the sky was absolutely spectacular with shifting colors. The lower part of the north sky was glowing with a blue-green hue, while huge curtains and streaks of red shone brightly above. These photos were all taken from a hilltop near my home, with exposure times ranging from about 10 to 30 seconds.










That's the crescent Moon on the left of this photo, partially obscurred by a tree. This shows just how bright the aurora was!




That's the cup of the Big Dipper at the top of this photo, and the cup of the Little Dipper at the bottom. Considering the fact that the red shafts were far too tall to fit into the picture, this shows just how big they were in the sky!


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