Shimmering greens and reds from an unexpected show of Northern Lights wowed several Hartland area residents Monday night.

"It was very faint, but I've never seen them before — spectacular," said Linda Bowen, the first to post about them on Hartland Patch's Facebook site.

Amateur photographer Michael Rosinski posted four photographs from his property after it began to recede and was less visible to the naked eye, but he still was able to capture the colors by using longer exposures.

"I could see it with my eyes only, but just barely at 9:45 p.m. I guess 9:15 p.m. or slightly earlier was peak for SE Michigan area visual viewing … I was reading bedtime stories to kids then," posted Rosinski, a Hartland resident whose night sky photography has been highlighted previously on Hartland Patch and has been recognized by NASA.

ABC News reported Tuesday the lights stretched as far south as northern Alabama after the Earth's "magnetic field was hit by a coronal mass ejection" from the sun.

"The Northern Lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, occurs when energy particles from the sun interact with the earth’s magnetic field," the story said. "Though the particles were emitted from the sun on Saturday, they only hit earth’s atmosphere Monday night."

Tam Johnston, a firefighter for the Hartland Deerfield Fire Authority, said she just happened to spot them.

"They were astoundingly brilliant!" she posted on Facebook. "We didn't miss a thing. We just happened to be outside and happened to look to the north and there they were … What a starry night sky with colors."