Photo of the Day 186

Aurora Borealis, Acadia National Park, Maine, 2005

Photograph by Michael Medford

Nature's light show—aurora borealis—bathes Maine's Acadia National Park in a pink glow. These dazzling patterns in nature, called aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, are created when charged particles outside the Earth's atmosphere collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing a glowing display of curtains, arcs, and bands stretching across the sky.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Autumn in Acadia National Park," November 2005, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 137

Aurora Borealis, Acadia National Park, Maine, 2005

Photograph by Michael Melford

Darkness settles over Jordan Pond in Maine's Acadia National Park as northern lights swirl above. "It was my last night in Acadia, and I was setting up for a long exposure of starlight in the night sky," recalls photographer Michael Melford, "and this brilliant red aurora appeared. I was in a panic to make sure I caught it."

(Text from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Autumn in Acadia National Park," November 2005, National Geographic magazine)