Mark came and picked me up and made some phone calls. Then we went to pick up another friend, Poonum Nanda who would join us for a night we would never forget. 

We drove out to Columbus, Texas. Mark and I tried to find a dark spot that we had found a few months earlier, but we couldn't find it. We had been on the road a while and at 2:40 we turned on a small road heading East. Mark's window was facing North so he was closely watching the skies.

Animation of Sun Activity

Mark spotted it first and threw on his brakes. I jumped out of the car and looked North. He looked North as did Poonum and confirmed his sighting. We all grabbed our gear and started taking photographs. Details of the exposures are below. We watched as a cream-colored spike was joined by another spike and then a bright deep red color fill in behind it. The activity was originally due North, but it shifted to Northeast and pretty much stayed in that area. The aurora went up about 15 to 20 degrees from the horizon.

I had previously barely seen the aurora on March 31, 2001, confirmed only by a single photograph that I had taken. Photographs from the internet and the description of movement was incomprehensible to me. Yet here before me was a most marvelous sight, beyond all my expectations.

We watched and took photographs until 3:15am, when it faded from our eyes. The last photograph was taken at that time. 

Afterwards tired from a very long day I looked into the Winter sky. The winter hexagon stood out brightly among the starry Milky Way. Mark and Poonum talked about trips while watching the skies and spotting several meteors. I took some time to take in everything I had just seen. 

After the end of a horrible day, I found myself in silent reflection. My stress was relieved, washed away with rays of red dancing lights...the aurora in Texas:)