Red Bank skywatchers used cell phone cameras to detect the aurora borealis over the Navesink River. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Deborah Beard of Red Bank has traversed the planet’s northern latitudes to fulfill her lifelong dream of seeing the northern lights: Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Alaska.
But every time, at every stop, she missed it. Clouds, logistics or bad luck foiled her dream.
So when her daughter texted her a photo Thursday night of a bright pink aurora in the sky over the Target store in Middletown, she ran out of the house into the chilly night with no jacket and drove to Marine Park.
Maybe, finally, she would see the aurora borealis right in her own town.
But when she got to the fishing pier and looked up? Nothing.
“It’s gone now. Are you kidding me?” she said. “It’s happening to me here too.”
Deborah Beard has travelled to four countries and Alaska to try and see the northern lights. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
Beard was one of a steady stream of intrepid skywatcher romantics, including a dog with an orange mohawk haircut, arriving in cars and on foot at the park around 8 p.m.
They had seen photos sent to them by friends or posted on social media of the spectacular rare showing of the lights, visible as far south as Maryland in the hour or two after sunset. The lights were caused by a “severe” geomagnetic storm, the result of a “fast coronal mass ejection” of plasma from the sun Tuesday night, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
But Beard and several others had timed their visit to the park with what appeared to be a lull in the spectacle.
A faint hint of red was visible in the sky over the Navesink River, more pronounced through the lens of a cell phone camera than the naked eye. But that was it.
“I mean, maybe I did catch a little of it,” Beard said. “But I only saw it through the camera.”
“It’s a cruel joke,’’ she added with a laugh.
Beard vowed to go to another location and keep looking up as the night went on.
The northern lights in the sky over Red Bank. (Photo by Brian Donohue)
Around ten p.m., the aurora grew brighter once again in the skies over Red Bank, clearly visible over in the northern sky, even with the naked eye.
One can only hope Deborah Beard was out there looking up too.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
