It's a heavenly sight in the polar sky. The solar storm that ignited the amazing Northern Lights last week will give an encore performance about once a month for the next year or two.

"It's like dancing curtains of light, but they're big," said Carolyn Sumners, the Houston Museum of Natural Science's vice president of astronomy.  

If you didn't get a chance to go to Alaska last week to see the Northern Lights set the polar sky ablaze, the Museum of Natural Science is bringing the auroral lights straight to Houston in a special show.

Encore performances of the real deal will spark the Northern Lights again, thanks to an active solar cycle.

"This is all over the sky, every direction you look, " said Sumners. "You're seeing dancing atoms." 

Solar wind particles are charged and can therefore be trapped by Earth's magnetic field. These trapped particles end up in Earth's radiation belts. The belts are above 200 to 1,000 km or 125 to 625 miles. As these particles enter Earth's atmosphere, they light up and cause a glorious glow in the sky. 

These solar storms can only affect satellites high above the earth's magnetic field. Your cellphone reception will be fine since cell towers are below that. Your GPS and satellite dish could be affected, but you likely won't see a difference.

The geostationary communications satellites, which make one orbit around Earth every 24 hours and are thereby staying in the same place relative to the Earth's surface, are 22,236 miles high.

"It's the satellites that are high and above the earth's magnetic field that are in greatest danger," said Sumners. "But the good thing is people who make the satellites have learned to protect them."

Since solar eruptions usually take a day or two to reach the earth's magnetic field, there is enough warning to take the necessary precautions and turn off the satellites that would be affected.

The International Space Station is about 200 miles above the Earth's surface. It uses several inches of high-density polyethylene in the living quarters as shielding against influx from the Van Allen belts. 

The show "Experience the Aurora" will play at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.