THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ABOVE PITTSBURGH | PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO

Local photographer Dave DiCello got up early Monday morning to try to snap some images of the Perseid Meteor Shower, which was supposed to be at its peak. But what he saw was much more impressive.

“I headed to Mt. Washington, walked out to the overlook, and my jaw dropped,” he wrote on Facebook. “While I did see a handful of meteors, the star of this morning (no pun intended) was the aurora borealis, which was clear as day above the Steel City.”

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This is the second time in fewer than three months that the Northern Lights have been visible above Pittsburgh, he wrote. The first time was in May.

In a quick Twitter search he learned that the Northern Lights could be viewed as far south as Virginia Monday morning. “I thought, “no WAY are they going to be visible above Pittsburgh again.”

DiCello is known for doing his best work when most of the rest of us are sleeping. Although he has a day job as a senior financial analyst for Thermo Fisher Scientific, he’s best known in Pittsburgh for his stunning images of the Pittsburgh skyline — at all times of the year and in all kinds of weather. He has been capturing those images since 2006.