Bolton, NY – For two incredible nights, a brilliant celestial show danced over upstate New York.
The Northern Lights appeared over the Empire State on Sunday night, coloring the starry sky in neon shades of pink, purple, green and blue. The Northern Lights reached the Upstate as the annual Perseid meteor shower reached its peak — and gave stargazers two brilliant natural events.
One photographer even captured three stunning celestial phenomena (the Milky Way, shooting stars AND the Northern Lights) in one unforgettable shot in the Adirondacks.
Northern lights have been sighted across much of the Upstate, from Western New York and the Finger Lakes to the Catskills and Adirondacks.
Unfortunately, the Northern Lights won’t be visible from New York tonight and tomorrow, according to the daily aurora forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. But the Perseid meteor shower will continue to shoot stars above us (albeit not as brightly) through the end of August.
The Northern Lights spectacle in August was not the first time that the Northern Lights made a large-scale appearance in the Upstate this year.
In early May, the aurora lit up the skies over the Upstate as a powerful geomagnetic storm struck Earth. Thanks to the sun’s position in its current solar cycle, the aurora is expected to remain active until the end of 2024.
Here are some of the incredible shots photographers captured around the Empire State:
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