I usually use this blog as an opportunity to discuss things within the control of students and faculty on campus: research, classes, social events, dining hall opinions, etc. However, I have to take a second to talk about the beauty of the uncontrollable and otherworldly and how it clashed with my Yale life on one fateful night.
On October 10th, 2024, an intense solar storm made the northern lights visible across parts of the globe. It brought a stunning display of hues across the eastern United States night sky. News outlets had indicated over that week that there was the potential to see the northern lights from unsuspecting locations, including New Haven.
I was in my suite when it happened, but my suitemate was not. She was making the trek back to Trumbull from her Marx library job when she noticed that several people were taking photos of the night sky. When she finally got a good look, she saw intense pink hues dancing across the sky. She promptly called me and some other friends, telling us to “get outside now!” This was a pretty cryptic call to receive and she would not provide any indication as to why I should go outside, but I listened. This may seem like not a big deal, but it actually is. I live on the fourth floor of a dorm with no elevator so I was putting a lot of faith in my friend by going downstairs for some mysterious reason knowing I would have to face the stairs soon again.
Northern lights visible from cross campus
Stepping out of my entryway, I looked up and did not see much. I walked around to try and spot something when I noticed other people doing the exact same thing. I looked in their direction and there was a pink nebulous shape in the otherwise dark night sky. It was changing shape, location, and brightness. Aurora borealis. I went somewhere where I knew I would have a better viewing of the sky away from buildings: cross campus. A crowd started to form on cross campus, reminding me of when people gathered to observe the partial solar eclipse in April. However, this gathering was much more sudden and chaotic as people were learning about the northern lights and coming outside in real-time.
Solar eclipse viewing on cross campus, April 8th, 2024
I thought it would be best to get to higher ground to try and get a better view of them. Luckily, there are a lot of tall buildings at Yale. I made my way to HQ, a 14-floor building that houses Yale’s humanities departments. I made it to the 8th or 9th floor to see if I could get a glimpse of the lights at all. This did not provide any satisfactory results, and I went back to the street.
My architecture major bestie was in that building when the light show occurred. His studio is literally on the top floor with access to a patio of sorts, so he got an amazing view at the peak of the solar storm. I asked if he could let me in, and I made my way to the top of the architecture building. Whereas my friend was once alone on this patio, it was now moderately full of people looking to get the best view of the sky. I am eternally grateful to my friend for getting the photos he did, which surprisingly actually did a better job of showcasing the lights than what was visible.
Due to all the excitement, I accidentally forgot about dinner and the dining halls closest to me close for dinner at 7:30pm. I then had to acquire my own dinner for the night and made my way to Tomatillo, a Mexican restaurant off-Broadway. There, I greeted the cashier and chef and asked if they had heard about the northern lights that were visible only moments ago. They did not know what I was talking about–and I’m convinced they thought I was unwell for a moment–but the pictures in this blog provided enough information. Walking home with my quesadillas, I saw people still running around trying to spot the lights. The northern lights did not linger for long (~20 minutes), but Yale and New Haven still craved the light show. Returning home to do homework in the absence of the northern lights was fairly disappointing.
I had never seen the northern lights; it had been a longstanding hope of mine to see them someday. Now that I have, I crave to see them again… maybe in Greenland this time. But I will forever remember seeing them in my time here and how the community came together to witness in awe and simply exist in that moment.
