125 years ago today, on 5 January 1892, the first successful photograph of the aurora borealis (the Northern Lights) was made in northern Norway by the German physicist Martin Brendel. Although it was limited to a blurred, low-contrast picture, it did convey some sense of the shape of the aurora. The task was not easy because the auroral light itself was generally feeble and flickering while photographic materials of the time required a long exposure, and was not sensitive to the deep reds in the aurora.
See: http://newsletter.gi.alaska.edu/node/4657 and http://www.famousdaily.com/history/first-successful-auroral-photograph-made.html
