Spectacular aurora borealis takes over the North American night sky

An awe-inspiring aurora borealis stretched across much of Canada and parts of the U.S., with purple, pink, teal and green hues dancing and shimmering as far as the eye could see.

A famous Robert W. Service poem notes “the northern lights have seen queer sights,” but on Monday night stretching into Tuesday morning, people across a large area of North America were treated to a breathtaking sight themselves.

An awe-inspiring and vivid aurora borealis stretched across the Alberta sky, with purple, pink, teal and green hues dancing and shimmering as far as the eye could see.

People across Western Canada reported seeing the aurora, but it wasn’t limited to this side of the border.

Posts on social media said the light display could be seen by Americans as far south as Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio.

Normally, aurora watchers need to leave the bright lights of the city to properly take in the astrological show, but even at 5 a.m. Tuesday, it was vivid enough to be seen inside Edmonton.

Global Edmonton weather specialist Phil Darlington noted that in his experience, Monday night was the first time the station’s Global News Skytracker camera in downtown Edmonton was able to detect northern lights.

The lights are created by charged particles that emanate from the sun, move through space and hit the Earth’s atmosphere, according to a previous Global News interview with Frank Florian, the director of planetarium and space sciences at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton.