Aurora Borealis in North Ames - October 2024

Similar to the poppy fields that sprang up in Ames (see related posts), seeing the aurora borealis has been a bucket list item of mine for a long, long time. I'd seen some earlier in 2024, but the photographs had just turned out terribly. I'd gone way out in the country, but Iowa actually has just terrible light polution, and there were a ton of farm lights and other detractors. I'd thought that would be my last chance to see them, though, so I'd been happy just to have the opportunity. Regardless, I threw the NOAA tracker on my phone, and was super-happy when it alerted me in October that the aurora would be visible in Iowa again.

I have mentioned before that A is sort of my ride-or-die - if I have a weird thing I want to do, she's almost always all-in (I believe likely because it's weird). I took A and went to Prairie Moon Winery, north of town. I'd just taken photos of A and some of her friends there for Homecoming (I'll likely put those in my next post), and knew that it was more protected from lights. The only problem was just that, while I took my good camera and a tripod, I just couldn't get the settings quite right. Regardless, some of these turned out okay. I'd hoped that we could do a couple of days layover in Iceland on our trip we have scheduled to Ireland this coming August (2025), but we ended up getting a great deal on a direct flight so we'll have to do that another time.

I love my girl's boho style. She is so creative and unique, and I love it.

I wish the sky had turned out in this, because I love her movement in this.

Most of the aurora were visible to the naked eye, but they were so much more fascinating through a camera.

It's crazy how distinctly we could see the flares, even down here so far beneath the general area.