STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS

George Wade was shaking at the wheel, his heart racing.

He was heading for Grand Pré about an hour before midnight, when he took a quick glance up through the sun roof of his car.      

“The entire sky above me was just lit up with these green and purple shifting pillars of light,” said Wade. “I was just in complete awe.”

Wade was among some lucky Nova Scotians treated to dazzling northern lights displays in the province Friday night.

The spectacle was caused by a powerful solar storm that lit up the skies unusually far south in the Northern Hemisphere.

The celestial light displays are a result of energy particles from the sun colliding with the upper parts of the earth’s atmosphere. In this case, we’re seeing the most powerful solar storm in more than two decades, according to the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was expected to continue through Saturday night with the possibility of more northern lights displays in Nova Scotia.

Wade is just glad for having been part of it, and finally seeing the spectacle for the first time in his life. A dream of his.  

“It’s such an overwhelming natural event, something so rare and fleeting where we are,” said Wade. “To be a witness to nature’s incredible, baffling beauty it really makes you grateful.”

Wade would take hundreds of photos of the spectacle that night. He set off from his home in Kentville for Grand Pré at 11 p.m., and took his last photo at about 3 a.m.  

An experienced astrophotographer, he’s well accustomed to shooting the night sky. He chose to set up at Grand Pré because of its natural beauty but also because it offered him the best vantage point: secluded and facing north.  

It turned out to be a fine choice. One of his shots shows the deportation cross — a symbol  commemorating the forced deportation of Acadians from Grand Pré in 1755 — against a  neon green and purple backdrop. Another captures a softly lit Memorial Church against a warm glowing sky. Wade then made the 40-minute drive to Huntington Point where he shot the colourful, historic fairy cottages basking in a celestial glow.

It was challenge to capture the dancing, shifting light, he said. 

“They looked like shifting pillars of light and they’re constantly moving so you have to be ready to move quickly,” he said.

He’s since had a chance to look at his photos and he says they rank at the top of his all-time collection.

“It was an other-worldly kind of feeling being out there,” he said. “I was desperate to photograph the northern lights for years. So it was just an incredible experience.”

He has one little regret about the experience.

“I probably didn’t sit back and appreciate it as much as I should have.”