Aurora Borealis - the Northern Lights

Last Saturday night, Feb 5, JW told me that the Aurora was supposed to be active.  Because I wanted to see it, I kept an eye on the aurora web cam to see how it was looking and then when I saw the lights and the big dipper on the web cam, I went to the window where I frequently see the big dipper to  see if I could see anything.

Yep - there the lights were just a faint glow (due to the neighbor's light pollution).  I set the camera to manual focus and tried to get a picture - all I got was one thin line of green.  I spent most of the night in and out of bed to check on the lights.  It was so cool to watch them move around but would have been so much better if only it had been darker. 

Here are a couple of pictures I saved from the webcam that night:

In both pictures you can clearly see the big dipper.

Here are a couple of pictures I  took - the color I saw was a lot fainter than shows in the pictures but the lens had to remain open approximately 20 seconds in order to gather enough light for a picture. 

Not sure if we are going to get out to see these away from the city but I'm watching the forecast and moon and clouds every weekend to see if I can find a clear night later in March (when it's a little warmer) to head up North a ways to watch the lights.