Some keen aurora chasers got a treat in Metro Vancouver last night when the northern lights lit up the Tri-Cities area.
Barbora Kyselicova saw the sky light up from Rocky Point Park in Port Moody late Thursday. She told Daily Hive the aurora started dancing around 11:30 pm, and was visible to the naked eye.
“Super cool and nobody there,” she told Daily Hive. “Just me, my daughter, and friend.”
There wasn’t as much fuss about the chance of aurora Thursday, at least not compared to May when a once-in-a-decade solar storm and clear skies brought vivid northern lights to Vancouver.
The entire sky was lit that night, and the show could be seen from downtown Vancouver.
Right now, the sun is reaching the most active point of its 11-year cycle, head interpreter at the HR MacMillan Space Centre Matthew Cimone told Daily Hive back in May.
But even when the sun is very active, stargazers on the West Coast often don’t get the full show because of our rainy weather.
“We don’t get aurora very often in Vancouver, so it’s always an exciting opportunity to go and look up,” Cimone said in May.
“When we do have these events, it’s a good reminder to take a moment to look up in the sky, reflect on our existence in the universe, and be reminded that it’s pretty amazing we’re alive at all — zipping around on our little rock around the sun at thousands of kilometres per hour.”