The aurora lights as seen from Durango, looking up the Animas Valley, about 10:40 p.m. Saturday. This photo was taken with a one- or two-second exposure using an iPhone. (Katie Chicklinski-Cahill/Durango Herald)
The northern lights were barely visible Friday night in Southwest Colorado compared to other parts of the country, especially the northern latitudes. But the glow was faintly visible to the naked eye under the right circumstances, and even more so with a long camera exposure. Bayfield resident Howard Rowe captured this image from the southern shore of Vallecito Reservoir. “I set the exposure for about 20 seconds, with the camera on a tripod,” he said. “It was a surprise to look at the monitor on the back of the camera and see all the red coloration. The camera could see what the eye couldn’t.” A small group of people gathered along the shore reported seeing only a grayish glow to the naked eye, Rowe said. The small white vertical streak on the left side of the image is a meteor the briefly flashed while the camera’s shutter was open. (Courtesy of Howard Rowe)
