November 12, 2025 Aurora, rural Isanti County, Minnesota

Aurora Borealis

VIDEO CONTAINS NO AUDIO.

Filmed November 11, 2025 on private property in Rural Isanti County, Minnesota east of the City of Isanti.

Thanks to S and J for permission to use their land. Please respect property owner's rights.

I used a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens with close to 180° field-of-view. The fisheye lens causes the horizon to bend strongly upward at the edges. The camera was a Sony A6100 mirrorless camera with a 1.5x "crop factor".

This was recorded at 1 frame per second (30x normal speed), slowed to 8.5x normal speed in post.

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Opening is facing northeast (lowest point on the horizon), with left edge crossing the horizon just short of northwest, and the right edge crossing just short of southeast.

The bluish-white light on the right side horizon is light pollution from North Branch, Minnesota, about 6 miles away. This also happens to be almost exactly east.

Cassiopeia (the "Lazy W") is very close to the top, just slightly left of center.

The Pleiades star cluster is just right of center about 1/4 down from the top. It may appear to come and go in waves. You may see other stars do the same. This is a camera effect; while stars do twinkle, it's not anything like this.

The North Star (Polaris) can sometimes be seen on the left above the trees. The big dipper is lost in the trees.

The brightest light on the horizon is someone's home.

The show starts off dim and slow, but quickly builds and clearly shows ribbons, streaks, and fluttering waves. You will see yellowish-greens, maroonish-reds, and a little bit of teal green. You may also catch a flash or two of deep blue. This is definitely the brightest part of the show. The tallest parts of the red ribbons are over a hundred miles high.

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At about 1:55, I tilt the camera up and slightly more east.

An airplane goes shooting up (remember, this is 8.5x faster than normal). Later, a distant plane flies along the horizon from center to the far right.

You can see the lights of a farm on the far right.

Orion (the hunter) is starting to rise on far right but is difficult to see.

Cars move by on the road on the far left, and one parks at the neighbor's house.

At 3:59, a distant car approaching from behind us on County Highway 5 turns into a driveway, and it's headlights just barely light the trees on the left. We were able to see the lights on the hillside in front of us, but I don't see that in the video.

The aurora in this section is not as bright, but you can still see greens, yellows, and reds.

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At about 4:09, I moved the camera to the right, putting east near the center of the frame.

The sky glow on the right horizon is light pollution from a string of communities to the south, including Center City, Lindström, Chisago City, and perhaps Wyoming and Forest Lake.

Several cars can be seen on the far right, driving by on County Highway 5.

Orion can be seen more easily, close to the horizon just to the right of center.

The show starts to dim here. It is possible that it got brighter later, but we were cold and had been out in the weather for about an hour.