A recent report showed how a powerful solar flare on July 12 caught the attention of one and all. Not even this, Fraser Valley stargazers managed to see the aurora borealis too. It was worth seeing how display of blue, yellow, purple and green colors lit the night sky. It started somewhere around 11: 30 p. m. and lasted until 3 a. m.

It has further been confirmed by Northern Lights Centre that aurora borealis is only formed after electrically charged particles from the sun gets into the Earth's atmosphere, thereby reflecting multiple lights. "[The aurora borealis] was quite bright out here in the [Fraser] Valley, but if you were in a light-polluted situation, you would never notice it. It's almost impossible”, said Paul Greenhalgh, President of the Fraser Valley Astronomers Society, who managed to view the flares from Abbotsford's McDonald Park.

Despite not being a public event, Greenhalgh, who has been studying astronomy for over 40 years, saw large number of people coming to see the event after they set a range of telescopes. Though such flares are quite common on sun’s surface, it is believed that this one was quite strong one, thus making a place in 'X' class flare.