Aurora borealis in blue

Once, during the 1970s, I was in West Marin, in Northern California, a stray wisp of aurora borealis was visible, a rare event this far south, and I watched the errant solar lightshow pulse and turn, shining in extraordinary shades of blues, greens and turquoise like a massive peacock feather against the  eastern quadrant of an indigo summer sky. In the gloaming, I imagined the backdrop of our planetary gods, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars to be astonished by the lightshow. People insisted that I was merely seeing the tail end of a non-existent rocket launch (I’ve seen a few of those too), but it wasn’t that. No manmade events to blame. Unlike a rocket launch, the celestial cloud didn’t dissipate, it lingered and hovered and pulsed for quite some time. It was an interlude of pure celestial magic that I never forgot. And now this video! I feel vindicated.