Aurora Angel

In May 2024 the strongest magnetic storm in 20 years occurred. The K-index for this particular evening, a reading of 5 or above indicating a geomagnetic storm, topped out at 8.3 on a 9 point scale! In Wisconsin the Northern Lights encompassed the entire sky nearly to the southern horizon. While to the naked eye the Aurora Borealis mostly appears white, to a camera, because of a combination of being able to capture more light over an extended period, in this case 4 seconds, the way the camera’s sensors see light versus our eyes, and the inherent higher contrast of the sensors, makes color jumps out at you. When I first printed this image, having chosen it for the color, I did not see the angel in the sky. The first person I showed it to exclaimed almost instantly, “There’s an angel in the sky!”, by golly there is!