Northern lights blaze over Aspen in rare display

A barn at the Carbondale Rodeo Grounds sits under the northern lights on Tuesday evening. Jason Charme/Aspen Daily News

Aspen resident Justin Nyberg has always wanted to see the northern lights — a “life-list” experience — so he and his wife booked a trip to Norway this winter. The “northern lights trip,” as Nyberg described it, is scheduled for a time when high solar winds make the aurora most common.

But Nyberg’s first time seeing the northern lights won’t be in Norway. Only months before his departure, the sky turned red and green above Aspen on Tuesday night. When he heard the lights had made a rare appearance in Colorado, Nyberg grabbed his camera and ran to the base of Aspen Mountain. He hiked about 50 feet up the slope and shot his first-ever photos of the aurora borealis.

“It