Miracle in the Czech Republic - Aurora Borealis

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vaclavs173.39last month3 min read

Last week on Friday, a natural miracle happened in the Czech Republic that has been seen perhaps all over the world at these latitudes. Thanks to a huge eruption in the sun and clear skies, Aurora Borealis could be seen even at my home in the Beskydy mountains.

I was returning from the World Ice Hockey Championships when I saw some great activity on a special Facebook group about the Aurora Borealis and subsequently realized that everyone was talking about the Aurora Borealis. I immediately peeked out the car window and said, "This can't be happening". With the naked eye, it became visible basically in the village, I didn't even have to be anywhere outside the light smog.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me so I rushed home to get my tripod and my new Canon R8 with the feeling and experience from the Nordic countries that Aurora always appears for 5-10 minutes and disappears. Fortunately, for the next 30 minutes, it took me to get home and then to the nearest hill, the Aurora Borealis was still in full force and I tried to take as many pictures as possible.

Never in my life I thought, I would be able to see this Nordic phenomenon in the Czech Republic. For my first experience, I had to travel 2600km and now I could only open the window from my house!

I have to admit though, that my capturing northern lights was not going well at all, because I bought a new camera which I will share in some later article, so my tripod was not able to fully stabilize the camera and it kept reporting slight shake and thus more than half of my photos had to go in the trash. I didn't choose a good location either, due to the large factory located behind the hill as you can see in the pictures.
However, there was no time to look for another location as you never know how long it may still be seen. And where I live, finding a place with a view to the north is difficult.

But what the hell? What more could I want? Isn't that the most beautiful thing one can see in nature?

This natural spectacle is a true phenomenon because the wave of popularity after this night was extreme on social media and in the media, everyone expected to see it every day, but few realized that this is a truly unique moment that may not happen again for a long time. Indeed, the sun is currently at the peak of its cycle, which predicts the visibility of the aurora borealis for the next 2 years due to the high activity.

Maybe we'll see another one soon?