Northern Lights in Acadia!

Exaltation, Jubilation!

I'm still in a state of wonder over what we saw in Acadia last night. When the possibility of photographing northern lights entered my mind a decade ago, this place was at the top of my list of places I'd like to see them. I can't believe how lucky I was to be here, not just by myself, but co-leading a photography workshop that started with this being our first shoot! So wild!

The night actually started like this, I kid you not:

We were supposed to meet our workshop group at 4 and go out to dinner, but I emailed everyone on my way to MDI around lunch and let them know that there was a change of plans. I said that there was a possibility of northern lights, and we should be out for it.

I thought we’d need to arrive at Jordan Pond before sunset to get a spot, but actually it wasn’t too crowded. The sunset was great, with the rainbow you see above occurring, and we then patiently waited.

Darylann, the co-leader of the workshop, and I spent a lot of time going around and making sure everyone was prepared to make exposures in the dark, something many had never done before. As the twilight got deeper, we started getting a tiny bit of color on our lcd screens. My reaction was, awesome, this is really great! But of course it was about to get way, way better. I honestly had no idea what to expect. You never really do. Even though I had been out for the May solar storms at Portland Head, I didn’t expect another display anywhere near that.

This was the first hint, and I was happy for everyone that we might catch a little color. Then things went bonkers!

Just a few minutes had passed, and when this happened, there were spontaneous whoops and shouts of joy, awe, and wonder at the light and color all around us. It was absolutely unbelievable!

Everyone was happily shooting away, so I went over to see the other shoreline where I had photographed the rainbow earlier in the evening, and captured these.

The words epic and mind-blowing are understatements. This event was much brighter and more colorful than the display I saw in May. Just wild! I turned around and looked back over my head to witness the corona, which is what looks like a radial point from which the aurora emanates. It’s literally the hole in the earth’s magnetic field where solar wind streams through and excites particles in the upper atmosphere.

Things then wound down, and we had photographed Jordan Pond enough, so we called it a night with the workshop group and sent them off to dinner.

Darylann and I then went out for some personal photography, and I captured this photo of her looking at the Beehive from Sand Beach.

We then drove to Otter Cliffs, and watched from there.

This sequence shows how the lights move across the sky. We often just sat there and watched without making any photos. It was totally mesmerizing!

When we got back to the hotel, the sky started going off again, so we texted everyone in the group to come out and look again, and many did right in the parking lot of the hotel. They were all ready to call it a night, but I was still too excited. I hopped back in the car by myself and went back into the park.

First I went back to this spot looking at the little creek that runs behind Sand Beach, looking at the Beehive. I loved the reflections in the water here and the curve of the shoreline leading into the frame.

I then drove further down Ocean Drive to check out Monument Cove, where the setting moon had been too bright to capture anything earlier, but by this time was bathed in an incredible pink glow.

By then I was exhausted, and drove back to get some sleep for sunrise this morning with the group.

Thank you for reading and I hope you either got or get to experience the lights. To me, they fill me with my favorite emotions, awe and wonder. It’s an incredible planet we live on, and an incredible life we get to experience, both the ups, like this, but also the downs, that make moments like these even sweeter.

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Several of these images are available now as prints. More will come online soon. See them HERE.

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We have spaces on our Winter in Acadia workshop in February. While we can’t guarantee northern lights, we can probably guarantee several of the views seen above, sans aurora. Sign up HERE.