If I Were Going...: 2026 Stevens Family Calendar -- October

When I started putting the calendar together, I had multiple complete layouts done for a page devoted to aurora borealis because we had gotten so many fabulous pictures on our trip to Greenland in September 2025. Here’s one example of those pages …

A page with an assortment of the fabulous skies we saw over four nights

You’ll notice that, unlike the page we ultimately published, all the aurora is primarily green with dramatic swoops, swirls and curtains. In other words, typical arctic northern lights. But, then something happened.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) pushed the northern lights all the way down where we live. Scott grabbed his gear and headed to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs where he captured many images of the kind of aurora you normally see at lower latitudes: ruby-red skies above a greenish horizon.

A shot we didn't use of the phenomenon; Photo: Scott Stevens

So, since this is so unusual (ish – we did get aurora over Old Faithful in Yellowstone the year before), I redesigned the page to incorporate the new photos. Adding photos taken in November is pretty rare, but I we still managed to get the calendars out on time.

Our main page is a mix of shots from our cruise along Greenland’s eastern coast 3,850 miles away and shots taken just 12 miles up the road in Garden of the Gods.

Just a bit of background first: Aurora borealis is caused by electrically charged particles blown here from the Sun by solar winds. Most are deflected by Earth's magnetic field, but, because the field is weaker at the poles, some sneak into the atmosphere to slam into atmospheric gas particles. The collisions create the dancing lights in the dark sky. I have a pretty complete explanation here.

Some unused examples so bright, they don’t look real; they are! Photos: Scott Stevens

Let’s start with the local shots on the main page that provide the red and purple tones for the layout. Red auroras are caused by particles colliding with oxygen or nitrogen atoms at very high altitudes, typically between 150 to 300 miles above Earth where the atmosphere is thin.

The green, which you can see lurking near the horizon in the Colorado pictures, is more typical, coming from particles colliding with more abundant oxygen molecules at altitudes between 60 to 150 miles high.

Scott used Garden of the God’s dramatic rock formations to anchor the shots

The left photo above is one of prominent shots on the page, but here you can see more sky. The middle right photo of aurora above the iconic Kissing Camels is the other Colorado shot used on the main page. The dramatic top and bottom right photos are on the calendar page.

The other photos on the main page are from Greenland. The displays we saw there differed each evening. To read about the aurora borealis in Greenland, click here.

These photos from the main page underscore show something we haven’t captured before: reflection on the water; Right: Scott Stevens

We used the left photo, which showed not only green, but purple as well;
the middle and right were considered and not used

We also used one aurora photo in the opening section, which I covered in a previous post.

This was a difficult layout to create because we had so many shots that looked both remarkably similar and dramatically different. You’ll see as we go through the rest.

Calendar Page

Just as I did on the main page, I tried to show the breadth of night sky displays we saw throughout the year. The first square features a wide swoop above a horizon still stained by the setting sun.

The left is the one we chose; the ones on the right did not make the calendar; Photos: Scott Stevens

Remember, all the predominantly green displays are from Greenland and the red ones are from Colorado.

We did see red and purple in Greenland, as this calendar page shot shows; Photo: Scott Stevens

By the way, that type of display stretching across the horizon with spikes extending upward are called “picket fences.”

That display was so spectacular that we ended up with lots to consider;
these did not make it; Photos: Scott Stevens

The next square showcases giant arcs and bands of aurora descending from high in the sky down to the horizon, often reflecting gently on the water. If you look closely at the next shots, you can also see icebergs floating in the water, something else we’ve never captured.

Of these, we chose the middle, but had to crop a lot out; All by two upper right: Scott Stevens

Dropping down to the lower squares on the calendar page, we have an even brighter, dense descending arc.

We selected the left because it was so, so bright; Photos: Scott Stevens

I covered the next square and the second from the last from Garden of the Gods above.

Another look; Photos: Scott Stevens

The Middle square is a complete departure from the rest of the page. I originally started out thinking that I might feature a wide variety of celestial photos – Milky Way, stars, aurora, sunsets – but very few measured up to the two aurora events.

However, I couldn’t turn down the Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that Scott captured in northern New Mexico. Discovered by the Mount Lemmon (Arizona) Survey in early 2025, C/2025 A6 made its closest approach to Earth in October at about 56 million miles and its closest approach to the Sun in November, giving it naked-eye visibility. With an orbital period of 1,340 years, it was last seen in the 7th century. The gravitational pull of the Sun during its 2025 passage shortened its orbital period to 1,170 years, so we’ll (figuratively) be able to see it again in 3175. I guess that’s worth a four-hour drive!

The comet is enhanced by multiple shooting stars; Photo: Scott Stevens

The comet is enhanced by multiple shooting stars The last square on the calendar page is the bottom of a much taller shot of a twisting purple, red and green curtain we saw in Greenland.

We used the left, which you can see in its entirety here; the other three are similar
but not quite as intense; Photos: Scott Stevens

Unused Photos

As you can probably already tell, we considered a very large number of aurora borealis photos (after we had rejected many, many more). Following are some that did not make the grade.