This image is artwork, based on my memory of the first aurora I ever saw. Coming home from some outing late one summer evening, my parents brought me and my brothers into the backyard to view an amazing sight. The sky was filled with green curtains of light in all directions, slowly drifting. It was a stunning display, and completely unexpected.

I did not make a note of the date or even the year, but checking historical records for that time, I believe it must have been the auroral display of July 15, 1959. This was the strongest display of northern lights of that decade, and it was seen at latitudes much closer to the equator than Connecticut.

To create this portrait, I used an AI generated image (from Google Gemini) and modified it to resemble what I remember from that night. I added a foreground of trees that reminds me of what our backyard looked like.

I have seen about 20 more auroras since then, and for all the others I have taken pictures (not always good ones, but at least something to help me remember them).