The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights (known as Aurora Australis in the Southern Hemisphere) has been a facination of mine for years. The idea of Sun-charged particals zipping through the magnetosphere only to collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, getting them all excited so they emit their energy as light is probably not what most people think about when they see an aurora. I find myself picturing the Sun reaching out long, whispy, yellow fingers and drawing on the canvas of earth somewhat like a child with finger paints does in a paint book. Seeing all the different colors probably doesn't spark scientific thought in any observer's mind either. No one will be thinking, 'over there we see charged particles colliding with oxygen, and over there they are colliding with nitrogen!' However, I find a strange romance to the scietific jargon. Sometimes I feel like I'm running around like a charged partical looking for some nitrogen atom to collide with. One can draw many beautiful allusions when one knows why the pretty lights in the sky are there. Or if one doesn't know, one can always be like Charlie Brown and lay back on a snowy hill and say "that looks like a blanket!" or like Linus and say, "I see the Valkyrior, war-like virgins on an errand, mounted on horses, armed with helmets and spears and the light is the reflection of their shields!" But however you see it, seeing an aurora should be on everyone's top ten list of things to see and do before they die.
