This image had a lot of swirling light with some nice purple sky columns above the green area of the lights. There also is a small meteor falling in the green portion upper left of the tree. The bright spot on the middle left is the planet Venus.

This image had a lot of pillars shooting high into the sky.

Similar to the first image but had a meteor shooting down from above. The bright spot of light on the middle left is the planet Venus.

This photo had a lot of rising pillars and a long trail of a meteor in this scene.

This photo had a lot of green and purple pillars of light along with a small meteor in the middle.

After many attempts the past few years, Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner finally captured a dramatic display of the aurora borealis on the night of May 6.

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, are collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. When the electrons drop back to a lower energy state, they release a photon: light. This process creates the beautiful aurora or northern lights.

Here is what Dave had to say about the experience:

“It was a beautiful site to witness and photograph as they displayed rising pillars, swirling lines and the colors of green, yellow, purple and reddish pink. Some meteors also were shooting across the sky and were captured in some of the images. I used this pond and tree as foreground, with the tree giving a scale to the scene of this large sky display.”