Northern lights expected to be visible again Friday night

Laurie and Kimberly Sibbald own 7 Skies Astronomy just north of Seven Persons.

Kimberly Sibbard, owner of 7 Skies Astronomy. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

It has become a lifestyle for both of them, that started when Kimberly, a landscape photographer at the time wanted to capture an eclipse in 2017.

“”I said to Laurie, I want to do the Eclipse. We need this little thing called an equatorial mount so I can put my camera on it and it tracks with the sun. The mount will move,” Kimberly said.

“He said, okay, we should do that. So we headed to our friends in Didsbury, who had a little telescope shop, and we bought an equatorial mount and a telescope, and it just exploded from there. We both said, we want to do Astronomy.”

Kimberly was recognized by NASA with an astronomy picture of the day in April of 2023 for her image of a supernova remnant.

Laurie Sibbard, owner of 7 Skies Astronomy. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

Laurie says their observatory setup with multiple telescopes has allowed the Sibbalds to follow their passion.

“What we do is take images, long-scale images, long-exposure images of deep space, and put them together into some incredible photographs,” Laurie said.

“That’s how we started, but we also do other things, like lunar, and we do a little bit of planetary, but we also do some solar work, because why waste the day if you can see some neat stuff on the sun.”

Laurie said the sun has an 11-year cycle that we are near the peak of, where sun spots are forming on the sun.

Adding that sometimes these magnetic fields will snap, where a big burst of energy comes out of the sun.

“A coronal mass ejection, it’s called, which is a plasma that gets forced out with that X-ray energy, and sometimes that can travel towards the Earth,” Laurie said.

“When that travels towards the Earth, whether it’s head-on or just a glancing blow, that’s what stimulates the Earth’s magnetosphere and causes auroras to form, and for us to be able to see them at relatively low latitudes.”

Rod DeVries, owner of Eagle Butte Observatory. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

Rob DeVries, owner at Eagle Butte Observatory, said he expects summer 2025, we’ll be right at the peak.

“Northern light activity will continue for another year. Good northern light displays,” DeVries said.

“Heightened activity, not every night, the sun has to send a lot of charged particles in our direction.”

DeVries says that when this happens after sunset, generally in that 9 to 10 o’clock range you should notice the sky dancing with northern lights.

“But if you really want to see the deep colors, usually around midnight or shortly thereafter is when it gets really good,” DeVries said.

“So when we’re expecting a solar storm. Take a nap, be up a little late. It’s worth the view.”

Kimberly said an ideal way to be able to see the aurora better is capturing it through a DSLR Camera on a tripod pointing straight up to the sky with a cable release.

Adding the best photos not having any more than about a two second exposure.

But even a cell phone can work.

“Cell phones are great now, if you put them on the night mode, they’ll take a three or four second image, so you’d be able to just capture something,” Kimberly said.

“Maybe what your eyes aren’t seeing the camera will see. Our eyes are pretty good at seeing the greens and the reds, but sometimes, some people’s eyes don’t work as well,” she added.

“But if you hold your cell phone up, you’re going to get the pinks, the reds, the purples and the greens.”

A number of pictures were captured of the northern lights on Thursday, but if you want to get the best possible view Friday, somewhere dark, north and away from the city is an ideal location.

Laurie and Kimberly Sibbald – Nov. 10

Linda Moreau – Oct. 10

Susan Therrien – Oct. 10

A comet is also expected to be visible in the night sky beginning Saturday night until about Oct. 20.

This is of course if it survives it’s orbit around the sun.

by Jesse Gill

Northern lights expected to be visible again Friday night

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