People in 17 states got their hopes up about seeing the northern lights this week, only to be disappointed when the forecast changed. Instead of the aurora borealis being visible in more than a dozen states, experts changed their forecasts to include only a handful. If you missed the northern lights where you live, here are some photos captured in the places they were visible.

Earlier this week, the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute forecast that the lights would be visible in Alaska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine. 

Some people said they were able to see them in other states, including Washington, Minnesota and Montana, which were included in the original forecast — although in some cases, the lights were faint and barely visible to the naked eye. 

The Northern Lights glow faintly beyond a group of elevators along Sudbury Road northwest of Walla Walla, Washington, late Thursday night, July 13, 2023. Barely visible to the naked eye, this image required an exposure of several seconds to bring out the hues.  Greg Lehman Walla Walla Union-Bulletin / AP

Wedding photographer Shaun Crum said he is on a trip through four national parks and stopped in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota on July 14. What was supposed to be the dazzling display looked like fog, but at around 1 a.m. CT, he went outside with his camera. "Unfortunately, the northern lights weren't really visible to the naked eye," he wrote on Instagram, "but a 10 second exposure brought them out of hiding. Used a 30 second exposure for the Milky Way."

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Another photographer captured the lights from Burley Mountain, just outside of Randle, Washington. "The camera helped immensely. I didn't even realize they were there until I turned my camera to that spot in the sky," he told CBS News. 

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Alyssa Roberts said she spotted the phenomenon in Bozeman, Montana, in the early hours of July 14. "We could see the lights moving and glowing and the colors a little bit, but the camera really illuminated all the colors once I took the pictures," she told CBS News.

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Photographer Matt Taylor caught the lights in Alberton, Montana, at around 11:40 p.m. local time on Thursday. He told CBS News he used an iPhone 13 Pro with a 30-second exposure. He said the lights were faint at first, but became more visible after midnight. 

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  • Aurora Borealis
  • Northern Lights
Caitlin O'Kane

Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift.

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