The Northern Lights made a grand appearance of the U.S Midwest and Canada.
Those who were up during the wee hours of Oct. 2 had the chance to get a glimpse of brilliant lights dancing in the sky, the Huffington Post reported
Self-described storm chaser and photographer Ryan Shepard, was able to capture a stunning time-lapse of the Aurora.
"I saw a wind farm in the distance and worked my way there because I knew it would be a great subject to give perspective in front of the sky," the photographer told the Post.
So what are these beautiful lights in the sky?
"The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth," Northern Lights Centre reported.
Shepard's DSLR camera was able to pick up the aurora more vividly than the naked human eye would be able to see. This makes it difficult for a photographer to tell if they are actually capturing the phenomenon.
"You typically can tell they are there if you at least see a hint of white streaks or "pillars" which I saw last night. There was also a meteor shower going on at the same time, probably one every 5 minutes. With the temperatures not that cold it was an incredible night to view the night sky," Shepard told the Post.
Researchers recently determined that these lights are caused when solar energy is stored in the Earth's magnetic field and then "explodes" out, a UCLA press release reported. The explosion powers the Earth's radiation belts, which are responsible for the Northern Lights.
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