Known for his stunning Chicago photography, Barry Butler says the Aurora Borealis over the city's skyline was something special to capture last night, "Without a double, the Northern Lights in Chicago, is extremely unusual."
Butler grabbed his camera and headed to the Adler Planetarium, located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island, to set up his shot, "All of the sudden, we had this pink magenta, kind of spire, that hovered near the Hancock."
With another chance to see the lights tonight, Butler says amateur photographers are welcome and can even use a cell phone, "The farther away you are from city lights, the better chance that you are going to have."
He says there are several factors to consider when trying to take a picture of the northern lights including weather forecasts and the KP scale, which measures how visible they will be.
Solar storms produce the glowing green, purple and magenta in the sky via a coronal mass ejection or sun burst.
Find all of Barry Butler's photography at barrybutlerphotography.com