{"id":521834,"date":"2026-07-02T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/521834\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:16:10","slug":"fireworks-arent-the-only-thing-to-photograph-in-the-night-sky-this-weekend-sun-flares-increase-the-odds-of-spotting-the-northern-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/521834\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks aren\u2019t the only thing to photograph in the night sky this weekend \u2013 sun flares increase the odds of spotting the northern lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographers may have more than fireworks to capture this Fourth of July weekend, as several sun flares could mean a natural night sky light show over the next few days. Heightened solar activity could increase the odds of seeing the aurora farther south than usual over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The sun emitted several flares over a 24-hour period on June 30. Those flares could potentially spark an aurora this weekend, as early as tonight, with heightened chances for an aurora continuing into the weekend.<\/p>\n

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s three-day geomagnetic forecast predicts<\/a> that the highest levels of activity could potentially hit a KP6, a moderate G2-level storm, around 18:00 ET today. The levels remain above a KP4 for more than 24 hours, however.<\/p>\n

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NOAA, however, notes that this particular solar activity makes the forecast unpredictable<\/a>, and the timing could come earlier or later than expected. The sun unleashed 10 flares over a 24-hour period, and how those flares interact makes the aurora even more challenging to predict than usual.<\/p>\n

The organization notes that there is \u201csome uncertainty\u201d on the timing<\/a> due to that unpredictability \u2013 if the solar activity hits during daylight hours, the aurora would not be visible.<\/p>\n

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With the timing uncertain, photographers should check NOAA\u2019s short-term forecast<\/a> \u2013 which tends to be more accurate than the three-day forecast \u2013 before losing sleep.<\/p>\n

If the conditions remain favorable, northern US states and Canada could see some aurora activity:<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: NOAA)<\/p>\n

The UK’s MET Office<\/a> is also monitoring the activity and notes a potential aurora, but says that “any aurora is likely to be restricted to the northern parts of the UK and similar latitudes.”<\/p>\n

Thankfully, photographing the aurora is a little like photographing a fireworks show<\/a>: Bring a tripod<\/a> and prepare to use slower shutter speeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Prep for the potential show by learning how to photograph the northern lights<\/a>. Even if the northern lights don’t show, you could still photograph the stars<\/a> and other night sky phenomena this July<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photographers may have more than fireworks to capture this Fourth of July weekend, as several sun flares could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-521834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}