It has been several years since the last decent aurora. This on e pegged out at G4 and Kp =7.75, yet still, the rays reached about 50 degrees. We were very lucky to have seen this one as a band of relatively clear skies had just moved in, pushing cloud to the north and south of our earthly local. The bright auroras that sparked the ray structure really did not last very long. I have seen several other aurora that were much better, this was only a medium level aurora, not a GREAT aurora.
We can hope for more to come however.

Also, the good aurora did not last long and the auroral oval did not have the red level even close to our latitude, so still not a great aurora. I monitored the activity, got to the observing site, and took photos of the Moon and Venus before turning to the aurora. there are many airplanes that transit these images as we are along the flight path from Chicago to Denver and the West Coast.