History of the First Recorded Aurora Borealis

Apr 22
09:36

2015

Lisa Jeeves

Lisa Jeeves

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While today it's a much sought after experience, the first recorded sighting of an Aurora Borealis was by a New England community in the early 18th century.

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The Aurora Borealis,History of the First Recorded Aurora Borealis  Articles or the Northern Lights, remains to this day one of Nature's most fascinating and visually impactful phenomenons. The unique, ethereal luminescence of this gaseous reaction is absolutely stunning, and continues to draw flocks of tourists and scientists to the northernmost regions of the globe each year in the hopes of witnessing it in person.
However, as appealing and entrancing a phenomenon as it still is, modern science has found an explanation for much of its mystery. Thanks to scientific studies conducted over the past century or so, the combination of natural factors and reactions that lead to an appearance of the Aurora Borealis is now well-documented, as are a number of other facts about the phenomenon. While they remain an awe-inspiring visual spectacle, the primitive questions have, for the most part, been answered.

However, it's interesting to cast back to a simpler time: a time when flashing, multi-coloured lights in the sky might well be construed as the work of some dark wizard or vengeful deity. Consider the account of the very first recorded sighting of the Northern Lights and the reaction it caused in an 18th century New England community.
A Face In the Sky

The year is 1719 and the place is New England, in the United States of America. A peaceful community is sent into a state of panic when mysterious lights are sighted in the sky above them. A state of alarm envelops the religiously devout population of the settlement, who fear Judgement Day has arrived and all their souls are doomed.

The above paragraph may sound like the premise for an historical action film, but it is not. Rather, it is a summary of the very first written account of humans laying eyes on what we now know as an Aurora Borealis. Though the lights had been spotted sporadically before – and even given their name by astronomer Pierre Gassendi a full century before this documented occurrence - the populace's subsequent reaction to this strange phenomenon was perfectly justified, as the Northern Lights were, at the time, considered a very bad omen. With this in mind, the report from the time period – describing what looked like a face in the sky looking down on the New England settlers – becomes rather less laughable, and takes on a more human dimension.

Naturally, over the course of the ensuing centuries, sightings of the Aurora Borealis became a far less intimidating – if no less awesome – phenomenon. However, for those who travel to Swedish Lapland, Iceland or the far northern reaches of the Arctic to chase the Northern Lights, reading the settlers' report from 1719 in New England may well reconnect them with some of the magic and mystery behind nature's most striking light show.