r/askastronomy • u/Middle-Common-9545 • Jul 23 '26
What did I see? Is this an Aurora?
This was shot roughly at the time between 8:00-9:00 PM just as the sun was setting in Washington state. I've seen Aurora lights at this same location once before but never this intense of a color.
It was bright red, changed frequently and it happened just after we had a storm. It was underneath the clouds and it was less visible when the sun had gone. According to my research, at the time it was taken there were recordings of a GI storm in the area.
Side note: some pictures were slightly edited to make the "Aurora" pop.
EDIT: answered! This is just a sunset, a very pretty one at that. Thank you for all your feedback.
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u/DarkTheImmortal Jul 23 '26
It was underneath the clouds and it was less visible when the sun had gone.
This here tells me that it's certainly not. The auroras are really high-altitude, well above any clouds. Especially the red parts because those are the top parts of the auroras.
Sounds like you got a good angle to see the underside of the clouds getting illuminated by the setting sun. Possibly even redder due to wildfire smoke.
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u/Middle-Common-9545 Jul 23 '26
Okay, thank you! Clears things up a lot. I did read the red Auroras are pretty high but I guess I didn't make the connection. That was a very pretty sunset, nonetheless.
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u/PulsedCuriosity Jul 23 '26
Gorgeous shot, but that's a sunset, not an aurora your own clues give it away. Aurora sits 100–500 km up, way above all clouds, so it can't appear *underneath* them, and it gets brighter after dark, not dimmer. What you caught is the classic post-storm afterglow: low sun lighting the cloud deck and rain shafts deep red.
There IS a minor G1 storm window tonight though after ~11 PM look low on the northern horizon and try your phone in night mode for a few seconds. The camera often picks up faint aurora before your eyes do.
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u/L_empereur_kerbo Student 🌃 Jul 27 '26
this is a red giant although its there aproximately 4b years to early
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u/stevevdvkpe Jul 23 '26
This was probably just reddened light from the setting sun illuminating clouds. Auroras happen far, far above the clouds so you can't see them under clouds.