Aurora Borealis with Rare Colors Spotted in Oregon

Can't get enough of aurora borealis photography? (Neither can we.) Photographer Brad Goldpaint recently captured this gorgeous photo of the northern lights over Crater Lake, Oregon. What makes this so special is the borealis' colors. Instead of the typical greens, observers saw pinks, violets and even blues!

They were the result of a particularly intense solar storm, triggered by titanic eruptions on the sun.

Here's what Goldpaint had to say: "During the early morning of June 17, 2012, by pure coincidence, I had an amazing opportunity to witness and photograph the Aurora Borealis over Crater Lake. Capturing this infamous light show has been a dream of mine for several years, but I could not have imagined the lights showing up in my own backyard! Soon after shooting the rising Milky Way towards the southeast, I climbed in my car and drove through the mosquito infested darkness, towards the other side of Crater Lake. I was making an attempt to capture Polaris above Wizard Island jetting up from the crater. After setting up near the Rim Village Visitor Center lookout area, I began to notice a faint band of moving light slowly making its way from behind the Watchman Tower, around 1:30am. My camera began picking up bright pink bursts of light towards the north, with what also looked like unfamiliar vertical bands of light stretching upwards from the horizon. I quickly changed my camera’s white balance to confirm I was not picking up some random light pollution, or hallucinating in my drowsy state. Following additional exposures, I came up with the same amazing results...The magical shifting scene continued until sunrise, and like most days in the wilderness, I was awed and humbled by true nature personified."

via [MSNBC], [National Geographic]