Sometimes you travel thousands of miles from home to see something amazing. And every once in a while, that something appears right in your backyard.

That’s what happened on Friday. “What’s the aurora forecast for tonight?” I asked a friend who keeps up with those things. “Amazing,” he said. He wasn’t lying. At 9:30PM, my husband and I went to the backyard to check the sky — nothing but hazy light pollution on the northern horizon. But just an hour later, the sky erupted.

I didn’t think twice about what camera to use to photograph the event since I already had my SIM card in the Pixel 8A — it had arrived a couple of days ago fresh off its announcement. I handed my husband the Pixel 8 Pro; he left his night mode-less iPhone XR in the...

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