PhotoBlog - Northern lights caught on video

Last week's solar storms sparked auroral displays as far south as Colorado and Nebraska over the weekend, but the best viewing was available way up north &mdash; for example, Canada's Northwest Territories, where photographer Michael Ericsson captured this amazing picture."It's one of the better spots in the world to see the aurora," Ericsson told me over the phone today from Yellowknife. He says you can see the northern lights on pretty much any clear night, "if you're out for enough hours." Ericsson knew that the weekend would be prime time for aurora-viewing, thanks to&nbsp;a series of solar eruptions&nbsp;that <a href="http://www.boseling.com/"><strong>Dre Beats Headphones</strong></a> started on Aug. 2. The outbursts didn't cause significant disruptions in satellite operations, communications&nbsp;or power grids, as some had feared, but they put on a heck of a show over Tibbitt Lake, where Ericsson set up his camera equipment. He put together a time-lapse series&nbsp;of the auroral display &mdash; shot at three-second intervals with a Nikon D3s&nbsp;at ISO 6400 &mdash;&nbsp;to produce this&nbsp;must-see video. (Make sure you're seeing this in PhotoBlog's wide-screen format.)Ericsson&nbsp;says he's seen brighter auroral displays, particularly during the long northern winter, but this one was special nevertheless. "It's really neat getting a summer aurora, because in Yellowknife we're still not getting complete darkness," he told me, "and that's part of the reason why I didn't see it as the most intense aurora."He and a couple of friends&nbsp;traveled to Canada's Nunavut territory in April to document the northern lights there and also gather some oral <a href="http://www.boseling.com/"><strong>beats by dre</strong></a> history from the local elders. Here's yet another must-see video that&nbsp;features the sights of the lights and the sounds of Alice Ayalik, telling tales of the aurora in her native tongue:Check out Ericsson's Vimeo website&nbsp;as well as his blog and MichaelEricsson.com for much, much more from the Great White North.Ericsson wasn't the only one to catch last weekend's show. Yuichi Takasaka's time-lapse&nbsp;video&nbsp;offers a subtler look at the aurora, punctuated by passing clouds and airplanes. Takasaka specializes in views&nbsp;of the night sky, focusing on the northern lights as well as noctilucent clouds and the International Space Station. This view of the Aug. 5 aurora was captured from Burton Campground in British Columbia:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Check out Takasaka's Blue Moon Promotions <a href="http://www.boseling.com/"><strong>bose headphones</strong></a> website for more.SpaceWeather.com offers a whole ############## of photos and videos&nbsp;featuring this month's&nbsp;auroral displays, and the show may not be over just yet: Just <a href="http://zh.818-818.com/blog/blog-html-do-showone-uid-249-type-blog-itemid-213859.htm"><strong>My Acer Laptop keeps saying it is unable to start up? | Acer ...</strong></a> today, the most powerful flare in years blasted out from the sun. The flare was not directed toward Earth (which is a good thing), but it still might spark a fresh wave of auroras later this week. To learn more about how auroras arise, and how best to see them, check out this FAQ page from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute.More about auroras: Southern lights look sweeter from space Weird glow from Earth's auroras explained A mystery glows on Saturn All about auroras on msnbc.com Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.