Aurora Borealis

Megh and I enjoyed a collective life goal tonight: seeing the Aurora Borealis with our own eyes.  I’ve wanted to see this for nearly my entire life, ever since I saw the movie Antarctica.

The sun is at a peak of the current solar cycle. A CME was detected the other day, and it’s arrival tonight was predicted by the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Megh, Beta, and I found a dark spot near Rockport, arrived as dusk approached, and waited for the fireworks. Nature did not disappoint.

It started before the sky was completely dark, and initially appeared to be a whitish haze across the northern part of the sky. We started to despair that high clouds were going to interfere, until we realized… the show had actually started.

aurora borealis reflection
I really like this one because the Big Dipper constellation is visible behind the aurora.
aurora borealis spires
The camera’s “night sight” mode not only brought out the colors, but also enabled us to see the reflection off the water.
red and green aurora borealis
You can really see the classic undulations and spires
red aurora borealis
The colors were so strong in this shot, the camera didn’t really add much to this photo. I really enjoy the strong break between color and night sky.
aurora borealis apex
The aurora climbed the northern sky until it was overhead, which is when I caught this photo.

These photos are color-accurate, but a little brighter than what we actually saw.

COVID Strikes the House!

covid-19 illustration

After two years, much of the world seems to have given up on keeping a pandemic posture.  I haven’t touched on COVID-19 in the blog in a while because I find it to be so frustrating. In the United States we’ve had strong anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-science movements.  They’ve really hampered efforts to “flatten the curve” of hospitalizations and keep COVID-19 from overwhelming the healthcare system.

Infection and hospitalization rates have dropped recently, so even the most vigilant have relaxed.  Few people wear masks into stores; most employers are cajoling people back on-site.  If there is going to be another resurgence of the virus, now is the time.

So, of course, the entire family is now COVID-19 positive.

We fell in a fairly orderly fashion: Megh, Alpha, me, Beta, one per day.  The only family member not affected appears to be Butter-the-dog.  I don’t know how to even tell if she is infected, but there’s evidence that she can.  So far she seems fine.

We think we’ve traced it back to an outdoor event the past weekend in Concord to re-enact the “Battle Road” from the American Revolution.  There was a crowd, and not everyone was masking – sadly, including us.

There have been a number of COVID-19 variants, and we seem to have caught a fairly recent one, Omicron, based on both the speed of infection and nature of symptoms.  It’s been fairly mild for us overall.

We also visited Baba on Sunday, after infection but before contagiousness. Megh has been feeling guilt over the possibility of infecting her, but (so far) she has tested negative and seems fine.  After this much time it’s unlikely she’ll contract it from us.

As a side note: my boss Terry, and his mother, also both tested positive for COVID-19 this week.  I work from home so it’s just coincidental timing.