Thanks to a few large coronal mass ejections from the sun, Chicagoland was treated to a brilliant display of aurora borealis tonight, which I attempted to capture through the trees outside our front door:

Don’t think I’ve ever seen it in person before, so that was neat.

Also neat? (Stay with me here…) If you zoom in on the top photo you’ll see the star Vega at dead center, which was way brighter in person. In the 1997 movie Contact, Vega was where the mysterious alien radio signal was coming from. And in the 2000 movie Frequency, the Northern Lights were the catalyst for the mysterious time-traveling radio signal.

Ipso facto, whether it’s aliens or geomagnetism or something else wonderfully mysterious, whatever is going on tonight should serve as the basis of a crossover sequel to both of these great movies.