The lights of the Northern Hemisphere, known as Aurora Borealis, means "Dawn of the North". It was named after Aurora the Roman goddess of the dawn.
The Algonquin myth of the Northern Lights tells the story of Nanahbozho, creator of the Earth. When he completed his task of creation he traveled to the far North, where he remained. It is said that Nanahbozho built fires so large that they lit up the skies, reminding his people that even though they were far apart, they were always in his thoughts.
A crushed black edit of a cold, Canadian sky.
I captured this sky while I was in the Northwest Territories, on the homeland of the Dene Nation. Their land, referred to as "Denendeh" means "the Creator's Spirit flows through this Land."
The Norse Vikings believed that when their warrior Goddess Freya rode across the night sky with her Valkyries, their helmets, spears and armor would create the flickering colors of the Northern Lights.
At millions of degrees Celsius, gas molecules frequently explode above the sun's surface, blowing free electrons and protons towards Earth. Since Earth's magnetic field is weaker at both poles, some particles are able to enter Earth's atmosphere. As the particles collide they emit the Aurora Borealis of the North, and the Aurora Australis of the South.
This picture was taken less than a minute after the previous photo. It can be hard to interpret in a single photo, but the Northern Lights move surprisingly fast. Some First Nations interpreted the Northern Lights as the dancing of human spirits, while some Inuit believed that the aurora was the dance of animal spirits, specifically deer, seals, salmon and beluga.
My final picture of the Northern Lights, and a direct shot of the sky above! This photo was taken on April 26th 2016, just after 2:00am at Blachford Lake, about 80km south-east of Yellowknife.
Considered by Nasa to be the "superest" of all Super Moons in 2014, this shot was taken on August 10th at full moon. It was the second Super Moon of 2014, but was the largest moon of the year since it was located closest to Earth in its orbit.
A February Crescent Moon. To be enjoyed only with this classic theme song. If you look closely enough you can see the old moon in a midnight blue.
It's fun to look at clouds and see faces and shapes, it's an example of a psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia. This particular cloud formation looks a lot like a woman holding a baby in her arms. Do you see it?
I took this photo just after an August thunder storm. I used a circular polarizer filter on my camera lens to adjust the contrast in different parts of the sky.
I took this picture from the Burrard Dry Dock in North Vancouver. My circular polarizer filter came in handy again, allowing me to darken some portions of the sky more than others.
Taken on September 7th at around 7:30pm, this Moon is just one day shy of being a full moon. It is the third and final Super Moon of 2014 and was dubbed by astrologers as the year's "Harvest Moon".
Night skies like this remind me of one of my favorite video game series, Castlevania.