Your favorite photographer and adventurer, Badger, once again captured the Aurora Borealis in Western North Carolina, illuminating the night sky from 3:15 to 3:45 a.m.
While photos can’t fully capture the spectacle, they offer a glimpse of the vibrant display seen through the lens of a Canon EOS R7 camera. I watched this display for hours with subtle but colorful visual modifications virtually every second.
An Aurora Borealis is a natural phenomenon caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with Earth’s atmosphere, energizing gases like oxygen and nitrogen. Oxygen produces a green glow, while nitrogen adds pink and purple hues. A powerful geomagnetic storm on June 3, 2025, (Kp7, with a 622 km/s solar wind, -7 nT Bz, and high solar density) pushed this auroral display south, making it visible at latitude 35°N and an elevation of 3,500 feet along Elk Mountain Scenic Highway in Buncombe County, North Carolina.
The vibrant colors illuminated the sky at an altitude of 100–300 km, peaking when solar wind particles were densest.
Enjoy this stunning photo collection of nature’s dazzling light show, a rare spectacle in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
Thomas Mabry – Honey Badger Images
Many of the HoneyBadgerImages are on display at instagram.com/honeybadgerimages.
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