The Daily Photoist: October 6, 2008

Best. Memory. Ever. Tuesday, 27 May 1997, ~1:00a:

I was driving back to Rochester, NY, where I lived at the time, along NYS 18 (the main road in this picture). It was a perfectly clear, crisp vernal night. Wistful about having to leave Toronto (it pained me every time), I kept looking over the water at the lights of the city. I started to notice an odd fog in the air between where I was and the skyline. I kept driving, listening to a tape a friend (who then lived above Rotate This!) had just given to me that evening. Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" came on after a Dire Straits track and Prefab Sprout song had played. Five minutes later, I looked back over at the skyline, and the "fog" was actually the start of a major auroral episode, illuminating the sky above Toronto with rich bands of green. It was the first time I'd seen aurora borealis. I stopped the car, got out, and stood on the roof, just simply dumbstruck with awe. The sky over Rochester, meanwhile, was orange from light pollution, painting the north-to-southeast sky in a mix of green, black and salmon, respectively, with a couple of thin stratus clouds silhouetting against the skylight.