Photographer Describes Northern Lights: 'The Bucket List Came To Bartlesville'

News On 6’s Oklahoma Weather Experts said it was a rare event for people across the United States to see the northern lights. A few things had to happen to have a great view: clear skies, a camera and tripod, and patience.

The Friday night sky glowed with color, bursting with purple, pink and green. Kristie Killer captured the stars piercing through a velvet red sky in Peggs. At the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Mark Robinson's photos remind us to slow down. In Barnsdall, the view above offered Cody Shaw a break from tornado damage. Stephanie York sent us a picture from Coffeyville, showing her husband, their kids, and grandma.

"To have them as vibrant as they were Friday night – that is very rare, that does not happen very often,” News On 6 Meteorologist Stephen Nehrenz said.

Nehrenz said a camera was needed to get the full effect.

"Usually around here, you're still not gonna see it with the naked eye or you might see it very faintly on the horizon when you get outside of the city lights,” he said.

In Bartlesville, Michael Bryan's pictures show the colors shining down like rain. A planned trip to Iceland a few years ago to see the lights, was canceled because of COVID. Turns out all he needed was a visit to his own backyard.

“The bucket list came to Bartlesville,” Bryan said.

He sometimes uses a windmill, putting it in just the right spot, to capture what happens in his corner of the world.

"Makes ‘em a little more interesting, and to me, it says, 'Oklahoma,'" he said.

But it’s what he can't control, where he finds beauty.

"I've got a motto. It's ‘Reflections of Design.’ What I see out here is God's creation,” Bryan said.

It’s hard to say when we could see the northern lights here again; it’s not the same as predicting a solar eclipse.

Bryan and other photographers keep an eye on an app called "Aurora," that will alert you when there is a likely chance you'll see the northern lights.