From a dark-sky site in Arizona (Bortle 1), this pre-dawn capture records a rare southern reach of the aurora at about 4:30 a.m. on January 20, 2026. What began earlier in the night as a faint red horizon glow intensified before sunrise into soft vertical pillars and a broader crimson wash, set against a dense star field. The scene reflects heightened geomagnetic activity that briefly pushed auroral emissions far from their usual polar domains, allowing observers in the American Southwest to witness oxygen-driven red airglow and subtle auroral structures normally reserved for much higher latitudes.
Photographed from Westwood Ranch in northern Arizona using a Canon R6 astro-modified camera at 24 mm, f/4, ISO 12800, with 10-second exposures, the image blends astrophotography and space weather into a single frame. The silhouetted telescope rigs anchor the foreground while the aurora paints the lower sky, a reminder that solar activity can briefly transform even the quietest desert skies into a dynamic canvas of charged particles and atmospheric light.
From a dark-sky site in Arizona (Bortle 1), this pre-dawn capture records a rare southern reach of the aurora at about 4:30 a.m. on January 20, 2026. What began earlier in the night as a faint red horizon glow intensified before sunrise into soft vertical pillars and a broader crimson wash, set against a dense star field. The scene reflects heightened geomagnetic activity that briefly pushed auroral emissions far from their usual polar domains, allowing observers in the American Southwest to witness oxygen-driven red airglow and subtle auroral structures normally reserved for much higher latitudes.
Photographed from Westwood Ranch in northern Arizona using a Canon R6 astro-modified camera at 24 mm, f/4, ISO 12800, with 10-second exposures, the image blends astrophotography and space weather into a single frame. The silhouetted telescope rigs anchor the foreground while the aurora paints the lower sky, a reminder that solar activity can briefly transform even the quietest desert skies into a dynamic canvas of charged particles and atmospheric light.