GR Camera Club April Meeting

Grand Rapids Camera Club April Program
April 15, 2026 at 7:15 p.m.
“Chasing the Aurora at Solar Maximum & Beyond”
Presented by Melissa F. Kaelin

Are you eager to see the Northern Lights or catch it more often? Join us at our April meeting when Melissa F. Kaelin, Founder of the Michigan Aurora Chasers, will presents tips, tools and techniques that can help you predict, monitor and catch the Aurora in your own backyard. Discover the best times for peak Aurora activity, camera settings and photography advice that will take your photos to the next level, and the world of rare sub-Auroral phenomena that tend to glow in locations farther south. This presentation will give you everything you need to catch the Aurora into the next Solar Maximum and beyond.

Following our program we will have a short social break. We will conclude the meeting by showing the April Competition images.
Guests are always welcome, we suggest a $5 donation for non-members. Members are always free.

More about this month's speaker
An avid adventurer, Melissa discovered her passion for the Northern Lights when she was living in Minnesota just south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. On the morning of April 24, 2012 photographs of the previous nights Aurora were posted across local and national news outlets. That day she decided she would do whatever it took to view the Aurora with her own eyes. She studied space weather and learned as much as she could about to the conditions which create Aurora. In October 2013 she finally witnessed her first Northern Lights display!

Melissa has continued to follow her passion, partnering with two other devoted Aurora Chasers to launch the Aurora Summit in 2017, an annual celebration of the Northern Lights that is open to the public and draws hundreds of people each year. In January 2021, Melissa founded the Michigan Aurora Chasers Facebook group, which has grown to over 133,000 members, and is a great resource for chasing the Aurora in our home state. In 2024 she led a Northern Lights tour to Iceland, and published a book, "Beyond the 45th Parallel: The Beginners Guide to Chasing Aurora in the Mid-Latitudes." Melissa has spoken as a presenter on a wide variety of topics, including Aurora forecasting for beginners, Aurora mythology and legends, space weather and space exploration, dark sky preservation and more.

IMPORTANT MEETING INFORMATION
We will be meeting in person at
Grand Valley Artists
2661 29th Street SE, Suite B
Grand Rapids, MI 49512

More information about the club at http://grcameraclub.org/