The Northern Lights in West Tennessee

Hello! I know, it’s been too long. I am months behind. How? At this point, I am pretty sure no one even remembers May. I have almost even forgotten, and I have some catching up to do. Something in May that I have not and will not ever forget though, when we saw the Northern Lights here in my neck of the woods, West Tennessee. Did you see them from where you are?

It was almost this time last year that I was planning for a spontaneous trip to Indiana cause the Northern Lights might have been visible. Well, that didn’t pan out and Stephen and I decided we’d have to go to Alaska one of these days if we ever wanted to really see them. Turns out, we did see them, and not in Alaska.

It was Friday May 10th and I had seen on Facebook that there was a very good probability of seeing the Northern Lights that night between the hours of 10:30pm – 2am. I asked Stephen if he was up for a late night drive over to the property to see what we could see. He was on board! We had about two hours to kill before heading out to the property so we did what we usually do on a Friday night in Spring, we hung out on the deck. The mosquitoes weren’t bad yet, and it was a very nice and cool evening. I was messing with my iPhone settings to see how dark and clear of a picture I could get without a flash. An hour went by and I looked up at the sky again and noticed there was a weird haze rolling in over the house.

Of course it was going to get cloudy the one night we might be able to see something, I thought. As I was looking at this haze, it didn’t look like clouds and it had made the dark sky seem lighter. I got my phone out and took a picture. This is what I saw:

Apologies for the blurry pictures. They looked much better in my camera roll.

I was in awe! I immediately texted my group thread with my friends and I texted my dad who was out at the property and knew we would be coming out to try and see the lights. Stephen and I put the dogs in their crate and went out to the driveway and couldn’t believe our eyes. It was like a hazy ripple overhead with some faint colors of pink and green. It looked like the haze was waving and then sending out rolling beams. The colors were faded but we could definitely see the movement and the waves. Through the iPhone though, we saw a much more vibrant sight. It was beautiful!

We watched them for about 45 minutes until the hazy waves started to fade away then I packed up my good camera and we drove 25 minutes to the property. Here we would be surrounded by the state park so a lot less light pollution; we were hoping for even better views. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any more movement in the sky, just a lit up background through the iphone and camera lenses.

We went outside the next two nights on and off many times hoping for another chance to see them, but no such luck. After seeing what I saw, I wondered if people who see the Northern Lights where they are a more normal occurrence, actually see them as brightly and colorful with the naked eye. Or if they just appear that way in all the pictures I have seen because they are just that, pictures and the powerful lens is what captures the color. I asked google, and it seems that where they are more normal, there is a lot less light pollution so the colors stand out more. Where I live, on the outskirts of my little town, there was enough light pollution to make them appear less vibrant. But I have the pictures to remember what me and my camera saw. And we are still going to go to Alaska one day to see them again.

Now, to you, my dear readers. Have any of you actually seen the Northern Lights? Were they out of the ordinary where you saw them? Those of you that have gone out of your way to see them, are they worth the trip? Should Alaska 2025 be penciled in to our bucket list? 😉