This year, New Year’s Eve was celebrated with both manmade and natural fireworks.
The aurora was unusually active and it was a clear night. I noticed it when I went out to do the evening chicken chores and informed Melissa and the offspring upon my return. They grabbed warm clothing and headed outside for a look. It was about -20F and I don’t put on particularly warm clothing for a trip to the coop. So, I changed into more-appropriate attire and joined them.
We started in the back yard and moved out to the street after the aurora moved behind the trees. Our eldest offspring took the aurora pictures you see in today’s post. It is amazing how much digital photography has improved over the years.
In the old days, we used to spend a lot of time taking long exposures on film cameras while worrying about static electricity making marks on the film, bracketing exposures, reciprocity failures, etc. The first digital cameras had different issues and still required long exposures. Now, cell phones can take pretty good aurora photos with hardly any effort. The dedicated photographers who use better cameras and take their time definitely get better images, but the quality/effort ratio does favor the cell phones.
We also got to see some manmade fireworks while we were out, and heard plenty more. Fireworks are very popular here. We don’t often use fireworks in the summer because of the 24-hour daylight and fire danger. People make up for it in the winter.
Our different sets of neighbors celebrate the winter solstice, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and several other occasions of obscure significance. On New Year’s Eve, they launch something for EVERY time zone. I happen to enjoy fireworks, but that practice does make the day longer than 24 hours might otherwise be.
