BOXFORD – Who should head north to Iceland or Canada, when are the northern lights are a beautiful sky right here in our backyard in New England?
The wonder of magenta, green and purple lights painted the New England sky Thursday evening. Aurora Borealis burst over a clear sky.
In the darkness of Boxford Common we found Jim Holland, president of the North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club telescope, scanning the sky in tow to catch a glimpse of the splendor.
Maria Duquette
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Holland said. “Nature is an incredible thing. Seeing something like that gives you a lot of perspective.”
Photos: Northern Lights over Massachusetts
Those who looked up were speechless, just like 11-year-old Dylan Griebel.
“I’ve actually never seen this before! All the eleven years I’ve been on this planet, I’m like, I haven’t seen it and now I’m like, it’s… I have no words for it,” Dylan said .
Heavy solar storm this week
The honor for Thursday’s Northern Lights goes to a a heavy solar storm breaks out this week.
“This is one of the best years I can ever remember for aurora activity,” said WBZ executive weather producer Terry Eliasen. He explains that the sun has been incredibly active in recent months, releasing material from the sun’s surface and interacting with the atmosphere.
The last light show was in May.
“Solar activity occurs in 11-year cycles and right now we are at the peak of one of those cycles. So there has been a lot of coronal mass ejection over the past few months or even a few weeks,” Eliasen says. .
And it became an evening for the history books.
“I think the last one I saw was 25-30 years ago,” said John Mitchell at the North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club. “It’s my passion.”
“There’s a lot of stuff going on up there in space; it’s really great to keep your head up, look at the sky and have some fun,” Holland added.
Tammy Mutasa
