Northern lights fulfil photographer’s dream

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This article was published 10/10/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A spectacular light show in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the skies over Manitoba helped one amateur astronomer fulfil a longstanding dream.

Russell resident Jerry De Guzman Pestano has been photographing the night skies for the last four years, as part of an ongoing interest in the northern lights — otherwise known as the Aurora Borealis.

Normally, sky watchers need to be farther north to witness truly strong northern lights, but over the past few days the aurora has been particularly strong over Canada, allowing Pestano to take his photographs in downtown Russell, even in spite of the obvious light pollution.

“That particular (night) on Oct. 8, it was like the craziest I’ve ever seen,” Pestano said.

“Ever since I have loved northern lights, and have done photography, I have always tried to, you know, capture the arches in Russell, but I would fail because of the light pollution.”

The arches that span Russell’s Main Street are a popular tourist attraction for the community, and have become part of the town’s identity.

Originally from the Philippines, Pestano has been a resident of Russell for the last 10 years. It was only more recently that he discovered that the northern lights were visible this far south. It was through a post by a Manitoba astronomy group on Facebook that he first learned he could see them in southern Manitoba.

“From that moment it got my interest.”

Pestano’s Facebook page is full of aurora photos from his excursions outside of Russell, as he looked for dark skies to witness the aurora.

But this past week, the aurora has been unusually strong, allowing him to see them from the streets of Russell.

“That particular one was so intense,” he said.

And it appears that if the weather holds and the forecast is accurate, southern Manitoba residents may be in for another intense burst of aurora activity tonight and possibly on Friday night as well.

The main reason for this intense stellar display, says Brandon University’s Austin Gulliver, is that the sun is reaching the zenith of a regular solar activity cycle, which is characterized by an increase in sunspots and solar flares.

“This is the solar maximum,” said Gulliver, who recently retired from teaching duties with BU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

“Solar Maximum is going to last something on the order of one to two years.”

The solar maximum, Gulliver said, is rather unpredictable, as scientists are not fully able to predict how high the maximum will be, or how long it will last.

Also unpredictable is when solar flare activity will occur.

“In reality, the time between the maximum can vary anywhere from between nine and all the way up to 13 years,” he said.

“But on the average, it’s 11 years apart. So every 11 years, on average, we will see a maximum in this activity on the surface of the sun, which leads to massive ejections from the sun, and subsequently the impinging of charged particles — usually electrons and protons — with the Earth’s magnetic field.”

It’s this interaction with the magnetic field that gives us aurora light shows in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

“Even if you’ve seen it thousands of times, you are always impressed by it because it’s never quite the same. It’s always constantly changing, even minute by minute when you’re looking at it. And of course the colours will depend upon what atoms are being excited in the upper atmosphere of the Earth.

“And sometimes its form can be very different, with really spectacular storms that have occurred on the sun and ejected large amount of particles directly at us. It can cover for us the entire sky. So you’re looking at a phenomenon that is never the same twice.”

For anyone interested in taking in nature’s light show this week, Gulliver suggests getting out of urban areas and looking for dark skies, away from light pollution.

“I definitely suggest that people get out where the skies are dark,” Gulliver said.

“Our skies have degraded over the decades. They’re too bright in Brandon.”

As for Pestano, he has his camera batteries in the charger, waiting for the twilight to fade and the night skies to show themselves.

As with so many photographers who get out under the stars, Pestano says his love of aurora is more than just a hobby.

“Sometimes, if I go out and have some shoots of northern lights, or whatever subject for me, it kind of gives me some relief from stress and makes me feel happy and motivated.”

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» X: @Matt Goerzen