These photos were taken by Steven Lichti slightly due west of West Lafayette, IN, at approximately 8:00pm EST. The exposure times vary from 18 to 30 seconds, on ISO 320 at f2.8. They were taken with an Olympus Camedia E-10 digital camera.
An aurora borealis occurs when energy from the sun impacts the Earth's magnetic field. As the energy is funneled into the ionosphere, oxygen and nitrogen particles are ionized. When this happens, each particle gives off light, and we see different colors.
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