Lights of the night

The “Aurora borealis,” or Northern Lights, were on display Sunday night, as shown in these photos taken a few miles west of Loyal after 11 p.m. To the human eye, these dancing lights appeared as shades of gray and white because they were too faint to be sensed by the eye’s color-detecting cone cells. However, a cell phone camera was able to capture the color. The Northern Lights are caused by collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere, interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS