Once again, Northern Lights do not disappoint, deliver breathtaking display across Kansas

Travis Heying
·2 min read

For the second time since May, people in the United States as far south as New Mexico were able to see the brilliant Northern Lights on Thursday night.

The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.
The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.

The Northern Lights are a result of the the earth’s magnetic field interacting with charged particles released from the sun. Typically, It’s a view reserved for those in higher latitudes.

Forecasts were calling for the possibility of a Northern Lights display similar to the ones that occurred in early May of this year.

How I captured images of the Northern Lights

Feeling like I had exhausted shooting the lights at locations in the Flint Hills last May, I opted for a dilapidated farmhouse along Highway 4 in McPherson County that I’ve photographed before. Forecasters said that the best views, if they were to happen, would occur shortly after twilight ended.

The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.
The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.

I operated two cameras to photograph the display. The first was a Canon R6 mirrorless camera with a 20mm lens. This camera was affixed to a fence post and set to automatically shoot eight-second exposures with a one-second interval between exposures. That camera began firing around 8 p.m. and I left it alone for two hours. After 677 exposures, I assembled those frames into a time-lapse video.

The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.
The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.

The second camera was a Canon R3 with a 15-35mm lens. A wide-angle lens is a necessity for situations like these. Using a tripod, I worked from a fence line and ditch along the Highway 4 (the farmhouse is on private property). My exposures ranged from six to 10 seconds with an ISO setting of either 1000 or 1250. Both lens were always at an aperture of 2.8. Occasionally I would point a spotlight beam at the farmhouse to make sure my image was still in focus.

The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.
The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.

In addition to standard exposures, I shot a few panoramas consisting of four to five vertical photos later assembled into a single frame using Adobe Lightroom.

The camera, with a long exposure, will always see more than the eye can. Especially at night. But at its peak around 9 p.m., the lights were clearly visible to the naked eye.

The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.
The northern lights can be seen above a dilapidated farmhouse near Marquette on Thursday night. The lights are caused by an interaction between the earth’s magnetic field and charged particles released by the sun.

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