Back in May much of North America experienced a very strong solar storm that produced some nice aurora displays. I had to be in Bozeman that night so decided to hang out in Yellowstone National Park between West Yellowstone and Big Sky to witness the event. Typically this far south, any type of light source, including the moon, can really hinder viewing but on this night I was even able to use the moon in an image as seen above.

As the night went on, the display weakened and strengthen, as is normal, and I moved around to different areas to capture different scenes. This side channel of the Gallatin River made an interesting foreground for some of the best color displays of the evening.

This was probably about the peak of activity that I recorded with the pink sky and purple columns dancing among the green waves. The pink really drowned out the green at this point however. As it turned out, I had wanted to photograph the aurora up here, so this worked out well but I do have some potential locations in the main part of Yellowstone that I want to use for the next aurora event. I’ll do one more post from the May event with horizontal compositions next week.