If you missed that event, get your cameras ready.
How do we know?
On July 21, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationreported a coronal mass ejectionfrom the sun.
Those solar particles are now are on their way to Earth, where they can cause a geomagnetic storm.
It may extend further south into neighboring states as well.
The agency also says this isn’t a particularly strong event, rating it at a G2 level.
A G2-rated geomagnetic storm is considered “moderate,” which is thesecond lowest ratingNOAA provides.
In 2022, asimilar G3 storm pushed the aurorasas far south as Pennsylvania and Oregon.
Murtagh compared it to a popular outdoor hobby that also takes a lot of patience: fishing.
Read more:Why Can I Never See The Northern Lights From Where I Live?
There’s also no specific time of night that’s best to get out and photograph the aurora borealis.
You want it to be dark, but that’s about as specific as predictions can get.
That inhibits our ability to see stars and planets.
There’s another element that’s out of your control: the weather.
Cloudy conditions can roll over any state at any time, making aurora sightings even tougher to predict.
Murtagh recommended Anchorage, Fairbanks and Yukon, Alaska; Helsinki; and northern Scandinavia.
There are even trip planners now who organize tours around potentially seeing the aurora.
