Solar Max continues to produce auroras that are visible at low latitudes. The most recent occurred on the night of 10–11 December. Once again, I chose to shoot from Ashurst Lake because it has very good visibility to the north. This time, though, we did not venture out to the edge of the lake. Heavy rains in November (almost 5″) has resulted in wet soils that have not dried in the colder temperatures and low sun angles of December. No desire to sink in the mud!
Shooting from the parking lot was a good alternative but did not give the expansive reflections from the lake that I have enjoyed before.
The aurora substorm starts up to the northeast with numerous pillars visible.The pillars move westward over the next few minutes. The North Star, Polaris, is highlighted here to give a sense of the low heights of these pillars.The substorm subsided leaving just a faint glow to the north. A meteor (probably a Geminid) streaks across the sky with the aurora as a backdrop.
This aurora was lower intensity and much more difficult to see than the event in November. In fact, we were unable to see it with the unaided eye. Reviewing the photo images after the event clearly showed there was a sub storm that lasted about 20 minutes. The peak heights of the pillars was much lower than we have seen before.
I have been learning how to use satellite data to forecast when these substorms might appear. Here is a plot of the data leading up to the substorm which occurred around 1918—1940 MST (0218—0240 UTC 11 December 2025). The vertical line shows when the substorm pillars first appeared in my photographs.
Solar wind data used to forecast the aurora substorm.
Images: Nikon D850, 17mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 15 seconds.
The Sun remains active even though it has probably passed Solar Max—and auroras once again visited low latitudes, including northern Arizona. The geomagnetic storm forecast indicated auroras were likely into the middle latitudes with a chance of appearing at low latitudes. I was ready to view the aurora but the weather was uncooperative. Clouds increased during the day and by sunset a layer of high clouds covered the region. But an hour or two later I was able to see stars overhead (but not low on the horizon) so I decided it might be worth the effort.
It was worth the effort.
As we did for the October 2024 event, we watched and photographed the aurora from Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was again hoping to capture reflections of the aurora on the still waters of the lake and was successful. I even managed to capture an image with a heron standing in the shallow water and silhouetted by the bright aurora to the north.
At first the aurora was faint and clouds in the north blocked the view. Gradually, the clouds moved out of the way. And, then, between about 2135 and 2155 MST (0435 to 0455 UTC 12 November 2025) there was a strong substorm that lit up the sky. It was bright enough to illuminate the landscape and even cast faint shadows.
The aurora was seen as far south as latitude 13°N in El Salvador!
Here are a few still images and a time-lapse video. Images were shot with a Nikon D850, Tamron 12mm fisheye lens, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 15 seconds.
The beginning of the substorm at 2140 MST (0440 UTC). Numerous pillars are visible across the northern sky (12mm fisheye lens).A few minutes later (2148 MST; 0448 UTC) a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc appears above the pillars.A heron wades in the shallow water of Ashurst Lake and is silhouetted by the bright aurora in the north.
Time-lapse video from 1948–2226 MST (0248–0526 UTC). Very little activity is present at first but then the substorm erupts with numerous pillars developiing along with a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc the propogates upgward. And all of this is reflected in the lake.
And there may be yet more big events during this solar cycle!
Here is some additional information about this aurora and current solar cycle.
Some of the strongest and most widespread displays of auroras since Oct. 10, 2024, occurred overnight on Tuesday, Nov. 11, into Wednesday, Nov. 12, according to NOAA, caused by one of the most powerful G4-rated geomagnetic storms of the current solar cycle.
The potent geomagnetic storm occurred after two particularly fast-moving coronal mass ejections — clouds of charged particles from the sun — erupted from the sun on Sunday, Nov. 9, and Monday, Nov. 10, in the wake of an X1.7 and X1.2-class solar flares. It left space weather scientists on high alert this week.
The last three major events from the current solar cycle are shown in this table from Wikipedia:
X1.2(X1.3)-class flares[95] and X4.5-class flare.[96] The flares with a magnitude of 6–7 occurred between 30 April and 4 May 2024. On 5 May the strength of the solar storm reached 5 points, which is considered strong according to the K-index. The rapidly growing sunspot AR3663 became the most active spot of the solar cycle 25. On 5 May alone, it emitted two X-class (strongest) flares and six M-class (medium) flares. Each of these flares resulted in a short-term but profound disconnection of the Earth’s radio signal, resulting in signal loss at frequencies below 30 megahertz (MHz).[97]
With a NOAA rating of G5, an estimated peak Dst of −412 nT, and aurorae seen at far lower latitudes than usual in both hemispheres, this geomagnetic storm was the most powerful to affect Earth since November 2003. A later study estimates a Dst peak of −518 nT, meaning the strongest storm since 1989 and the second strongest since 1921.[71]
Oct 2024
October 2024 solar storm
Triggered by an X1.8 solar flare that produced a relatively fast CME.[104][105] The storm reached a peak Dst of −341 nT.[106] Auroras seen as far south as Cuba.[107]
I have enjoyed several evenings (and one early morning) viewing and photographing Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). My first sighting was the morning of 06 October 2025. By mid-October the comet had moved enough that it was visible in the evening sky.
C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) approached Earth at a distance of 0.60 AU (90 million km; 56 million mi) on 21 October 2025. It reached an apparent magnitude of 3.5 to 4.4 according to different estimates, indicating that it could be visible to the naked eye from sufficiently dark skies. During its closest approach the comet was visible in the sunset sky with a solar elongation of 42 degrees.
Here are some images and time-lapse videos of the comet.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) in the pre dawn hours on 06 October 2025.
A time-lapse video of the comet on the same morning shows how quickly the comet moves against the background of stars in a period of one hour.
Viewing the comet in the evening was much easier.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) in the evening hours (85 mm; 18 October 2025).
Time-lapse video of the motion of the comet (18 October 2025).
The following night I switched lenses to a medium telephoto (180mm) and was able to resolve a lot of detail in the tail of the comet.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon ) on 19 October 2025.
The next evening I went to Ashurst Lake (southeast of Flagstaff) to try and capture the comet with reflections in the water. This time I shot with a wide angle lens (35mm) to get the evening sky with the lake.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and Ashurst Lake. The San Francisco Peaks can be seen to the right.
A few nights later I was in Sedona and shot this image from the Cultural Park on the west side of town. There was a lot of green airglow present low in the sky. Also, the dome of light in the center of the image is from Las Vegas — 200 miles away.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) from Sedona. (35 mm; 24 October 2025.Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) from Mormon Lake overlook (180 mm, 20 October 2025).
It was time for the big lens — the Nikon 200–500mm lens at full telephoto. These were taken at Upper Lake Mary. The focus is just a bit soft owing to operator error but it still shows a lot of interesting detail in the tail.
Comet C.2025 A6 (Lemmon) on 30 October 2025.A black and white negative image of the comet. This format shows a lot of detail.
The moon is nearly full right now. I’ll wait about a week until the skies are very dark again and shoot more images of the comet before it fades away.
A previous post showed many images of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) taken when the comet was visible in the morning sky. The comet then moved between the Earth and Sun making it difficult to see. A period of 10 days passed between my last morning images and my first evening images.
At first, the comet was difficult to see in the bright evening twilight and the presence of the Moon made it even more difficult. But each day the Moon rose later in the evening and the comet rose higher in the western sky. I was able to take advantage of clear skies and shot photographs on eight days. Here are some of the best photographs from those sessions.
13 October 2024
I had already shot images of the comet while looking to the east across Ashurst Lake when it was a morning object. Now it was time to shoot looking to the west across the Lake. The comet was very bright and easy to see. I also shot a long sequence of images to create a time-lapse video of the comet setting in the west.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). 13 October 2024.
Time-lapse video of the comet setting behind Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona.
14 October 2024
The next evening I set up at the Arizona Snowbowl parking area–along with dozens of other comet watchers. It was fun to listen to folks admiring the comet and the joy from the kids when they were first able to spot it in the darkening sky. The anti tail was even easier to see on this night compared to the previous evening.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from Arizona Snowbowl. 14 October 2024.
16 October 2024
The Moon was still a factor in the evenings but the comet was getting higher in the sky so it balanced out. On this evening I went to The Narrows at Upper Lake Mary since that section of the lake is oriented WSW-ENE. This meant I could photograph the comet above the water and get a reflection of it in the water. That worked out pretty well.
Comet and reflection in the still waters of Lake Mary. 16 October 2024.Comet and reflection in the still waters of Lake Mary. 16 October 2024.
20 October 2024
A few days of clouds shut me down but by this day it was very clear and the Moon was no longer a problem. I opted to use a longer telephoto (180mm) for these shots even though it might truncate part of the tail. The anti tail is still visible but is much less striking than in earlier days.
Telephoto view of the comet. 20 October 2024.
21 October 2024
The comet was continuing to rise higher in the western sky and was closer to the Milky Way so I switched back to ultra-wide angle lenses to capture both. Bonus: I was able to again capture the comet and tail reflected in the waters of Lake Mary. For the very wide image shown here I did a composite. The first image had star tracking turned on to get sharp stars and comet; the second image had tracking off to get sharp foreground. These were then combined and blended in software.
Comet and Milky Way reflected in the still waters of Lake Mary.
23 October 2024
The comet continued to climb higher, become dimmer, and have a shorter tail as it moved away from Earth and Sun. I switched to a short telephoto (85mm) to shoot a sequence of images which were then stacked to reduce image noise. I was also able to use the sequence to create a short time-lapse video to show the movement of the comet over a period of about 45 minutes.
Comet and stars using a short telephoto lens. 23 October 2024.
Time-lapse showing the motion of the comet against the background of stars. 23 October 2024.
25 October 2024
As the comet climbed higher it also was closer to the Milky Way and I again tried to get a shot with both features. This was taken with at 35mm focal length.
Comet and Milky Way. 25 October 2024.
31 October 2024
As the comet retreats it is getting smaller in the sky and it is better to use medium length telephoto lenses. Here is an image taken with the Nikkor 180mm ED AI-S lens, a legacy, manual focus lens.
Medium telephoto lens used to image the comet. 31 October 2024.
What’s next?
We are once again in a period of clouds. When skies are once again clear the comet will be much farther away, smaller, and dimmer. At this point, it will require longer exposures and bigger telephoto lenses. It should be fun!
The Sun remains active as it approaches Solar Max and the possibilities of observing the aurora at lower latitudes remains good. Earlier this month there was a Severe Geomagnetic Storm (G4 with Kp8) that produced visible auroras in northern Arizona. Some of the pillars of light were easy to see–others required longer exposures on the camera.
We watched and photographed the event from Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was hoping to capture reflections of the aurora on the still waters of the lake and was successful.
Here are a few images…
The first pillars of the aurora appear even before twilight has ended.Only a few minutes later.Green aurora begins to fill the sky...and fills more of the sky…An ultra-wide angle lens was not wide enough so I switched to a fish-eye lens.A “picket fence” pattern was briefly visible.The aurora subsides.
…and a time-lapse video (~190 MB) of the event.
Time-lapse video of the aurora of 10-11 October 2024.
