The sky lit up with shades of green, red and purple over the Pacific Northwest. Seattle residents, UPrep students and teachers flocked to see the aurora borealis on the night of May 10. 

“It was cool,” history teacher Pat Grant said. “I have seen them before in Seattle, about 25-30 years ago. I’ve also seen them from the San Juan Islands.”

There were reports that the Northern Lights could be visible, but it’s never a certainty.

“I knew that Friday night, there was a very strong chance,” Grant said. “Good weather, as well as the fact that there was activity that would create Northern Lights. I went out as soon as it got dark enough to see them, which was not until 9:30-10 o’clock. I was about to give up, it was about 11:30. I thought ‘Okay, I’ll go out one more time and have a look’ and then sure enough it was there.”

According to the Library of Congress, the northern lights are “shafts or curtains of colored light visible.”

“It was really exciting. I could see bands across the top of the sky and then various bands coming more vertical to the north,” Grant said. “They were green and white for the most part but there were hints of lavender, which was cool.”

The Northern Lights are more visible on camera than to the naked eye. This is due to the light sensitivity of the camera.

“We went down to the water, across the tracks and watched the northern lights together,” junior Jonathan Vrentas said. “It was beautiful. I mean, I was shocked at how little I could actually see. You could only really pick it up with the camera. It just doesn’t look that vibrant, unless you look really closely for a long time.”