Dancing Lights

The colorful, dancing lights of the northern and southern aurorae have fascinated scientists, but because of their evolving and fleeting nature, they have eluded detailed study by most of our observational instrumentation. The visual observer could not draw or paint aurorae fast enough to capture their ethereal nature. In 1892, German astronomer Martin Brendel was the first to photograph an aurora and, within the decade, scientists established large-scale observational programs in attempt to photograph these brilliant phenomena. However, while photographs could reveal new details about the structure of aurorae, photographic emulsion was not practical for an aurora’s weak, moving light sources. The rapid development of commercial television cameras, beginning in the 1940s, led to the emergence of low-light level detectors, based on television cameras, which were subsequently employed by astronomers to study various cosmic phenomena. By the early 1960s, astronomers began using commercial-grade television cameras and image-intensifier cameras to gain a better understanding of the detailed structure, change in shape and form type, and the various types of motion demonstrated by aurorae. Though aurorae are still difficult to observe, television cameras ushered in a new era of understanding their elusive nature

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• Aurora and Enlightenment Eighteenth-Century Explanations of the Aurora Borealis

  J Morton Briggs, Jeanine Briggs et al.•Isis•1967

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