How to see the Northern lights Tuesday night

Residents in Alaska, Canada and Northern Europe will be able to catch a glimpse of the Northern lights on Tuesday. The phenomenon may be visible as far south as Oregon and the lower Midwest.

“These Aurora storms, the stronger they are, the farther south you can see them,” Sky and Telescope editor Kelly Beatty says. “This one, although it had the potential to be a lot stronger than what we now think it's going to be, is not likely to permeate much farther south than like Minnesota, Maine and Oregon and Washington.”

The aurora borealis lights are caused by the sun. There are active regions on the sun that are unstable, where magnetic field lines are contorted and can collapse, Beatty says.

“When they collapse, they release tremendous amounts of energy all at once in just a couple of minutes. And they go out from the sun like a blast wave,” he says. “What we have going on right now is there were two or three of these over the weekend.”

When the Northern lights were visible in parts of the U.S. during May, they were vibrant, widespread and clear. But Beatty says this time around, North American viewers will likely see spots of light throughout the sky.

“The sun is just peppered with with sunspots and active regions right now. And these are the places that are the trigger points for these auroral storms,” he says. “So even though this one might not live up to a widespread display, tomorrow or next week could be dramatically different.”

Beatty says he understands the hype around catching a glimpse of this natural show of lights, and recommends that those who travel to see it bring a camera.

“Our eyes don't see color well at night, but our cameras sure do. And any modern cell phone will capture these,” Beatty says. “Nature is putting on a light show, and we get to watch it from the safety of the ground as opposed to being out into space.”

Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O'Dowd. Grace Griffin adapted it for the web.