Aurora Borealis Makes Brief Appearance, Lights Up The Sky

Dancing red and green lights could be spotted throughout the skies on Monday night as the aurora borealis was spotted for a short period of time.

Triton College astronomer Dan Joyce told WGN-TV that the sighting was first significant view of the northern lights for the Chicago area in nearly seven years.

Watchers from 8:30 to 9:15 p.m had the most clear view of the lights although city lights prevented urban watchers from catching the show. Sky watchers form Batavia, Mundelein, Long Grove, Champaign, Kenosha, Algonquin all the way to Milwaukee were able to catch the aurora borealis sighting.

Typically the lights are only seen in high latitude Arctic and Antarctic regions and the phenomenon is caused by the collision of charged energy particles with atoms found high in the atmosphere.

The photograph shown above was taken in Madison, Wisconsin and the photographer says the display was so bright that it “lit up the ground.”

You can view more photos of the event at DakotaLapse.com