A severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm occurred during the evening and overnight hours of March 23, 2023. Auroras were seen as far south as Phoenix, Arizona and were directly overhead at times in southern Montana.

I drove out to an abandoned homestead about 35 minutes from Billings, Montana - arriving shortly after sunset.

There was still some ambient light available with the sun having just set about 35 minutes ago, and this was the result of one of the first photos taken at 8:03 PM. It was shot at 15mm with a 13 second long exposure at f2.8 | ISO 2500.

This next photo was taken just a few minutes later as I added some lights to the inside of the abandoned homestead. The settings were the same as the previous photo. All photos were taken with a Nikon Z7 and a Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 lens.

It wasn’t long before the last of the ambient light disappeared and the aurora began to brighten even more. I was then forced to lower my ISO to 1250 for these next couple of photos as I was trying to find the composition for my next shot. If you are curious about the edits, the main change I had to make was to adjust the auto white balance as it was too heavy on the purples. I set it to “Auto” in post and was happy with the results. Exposure (~+1.2), shadows (+60), and whites (+32) were increased in Adobe LR. Clarity (+14), Texture (+4), and Dehaze (+30) were also increased and Vibrance was the default (+5). Saturation was left at 0.

A few minutes later this was the scene as the aurora continued to intensify. This photo was taken at 8:26 PM.

As the moon was setting along with Venus, I headed to the other side of the street to get away from the telephone poles and wires and captured this photo.

The aurora began to cover more of the sky as it got closer to 9PM, but the colors weren’t quite as intense at this point. They were dancing across the sky in a spectacular fashion.

As I turned and looked to the south, I noticed a band forming in that direction. After snapping a couple quick shots I then positioned myself on the north side of the homestead in order to capture the aurora and STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) with light pollution from Billings, MT in the background.

The aurora began to weaken a bit in intensity after 9 PM, but it was one heck of a night! Prints are available for sale, and if you are interested in one you don’t see listed, just shoot me a message! Thanks for reading.