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It's fall in New England, which of course means we're focused on where to find the brightest colors as we enter peak foliage. But we're also keeping our eyes to the skies for the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

There's a strong geomagnetic storm expected Saturday night that could bring the northern lights to the North Country, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont.

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With clear skies expected Saturday night, the NWS says we should have great viewing with peak hours between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Meteorologists had said there was also a chance to see the northern lights Friday night, however it was cloudy in many areas in the region. With clearer skies forecasted for Saturday, though, we will have our best chance of the weekend to see the aurora borealis.

If you try to catch a glimpse Saturday night, don't forget you need to go far away from the city lights, as the light pollution cuts down on your eyes' ability to see the phenomenon. Cameras are really good, too, but another pro tip is to use a tripod. You want something that's a bit more steady so you can have an open shutter, giving you a better chance of seeing some of those photos turn out.

And if you do get any photos of the northern lights, we'd love to share them. Just email them to us at shareit@nbcuni.com.

The Northern lights, also called an aurora borealis, are moving waves of lights seen in the night sky.

We now know the identity of the clever treasure hunter who tracked down a gold statue worth more than $25,000 — though whether he gets to keep tens of thousands more in bounty money apparently remains up in the air.

Dan Leonard, a meteorologist in Andover, Massachusetts, was identified as the winner, not by the founders of Project Skydrop, but by NBC affiliate News Center Maine, which actually introduced Leonard and the people whose puzzle he solved in the woods of Wendell State Forest.

Leonard described the moment to founders Jason Rohrer and Tom Bailey like this: "I'm kind of in disbelief that this is happening. I see the camera so expertly hidden in that stump, and I think, 'Oh my god.'"

The digital treasure hunt for the gold statue whose value was appraised at $26,536.25 sparked widespread speculation from puzzle enthusiasts and more. The founders created clues to make the search hard, but not too hard, specifying an area where the 10-ounce, 24-karat gold statue could be that shrank every day. People could also pay $20 to receive a daily clue, which helped fund the bounty.

People are searching for a golden statue worth more than $25,000.

The circle was centered roughly on Greenfield, Massachusetts, north along the Connecticut River from Springfield.

The person who tracked the statue down was seen on cameras grabbing the puzzle off the floor, but the Skydrop organizers didn't hear from him until News Center Maine reached out. Leonard explained that he narrowed down where the treasure could be based on the temperature recorded in the camera, plus the cloud cover and plant life seen in the stream.

When they did meet, Leonard learned there was a catch to claiming the bounty, as News Center Maine reported: the prize could only be accessed by solving clues written onto the trophy itself, which technically meant that anyone with access to the statue could crack the code and claim the money.

Leonard was surprised, but not particularly bothered, saying, "Let's say I don't get it: I still had a really good time and got a treasure out of it."

Rohrer shared more about the circumstances around Leonard's victory in a message to the game's official Discord server, a social media chat site where players were able to get more information about what happened.

The winner's name is Dan Leonard. A news channel up in Maine figured out who he was, based on their meteorologist connections. They connected us with him, and we got to talk to him on camera yesterday. That encounter should appear on the news soon.

Dan joined Project Skydrop for $20 on October 25. He explained how he solved it. Along with weather patterns, temperature data, and cloud cover stuff from the trail cameras, he also depended heavily on the aerial image clues. He said it would have been impossible to solve if:

The aerial clues helped him in two ways. First, they showed him that the treasure was in a large, deciduous beech grove, and there aren't many large beech groves in the Erving area. Second, they showed him a "map" of what the scene looked like around the treasure (the logs, etc.)

He never had an exact GPS coordinate figured out. He was simply walking the (few) large beech groves in Wendell, looking for the distinctive logs that he saw in the clues.

The temperature sensor data and weather patterns just helped him narrow down the area.

Also, he actually stared right at the treasure and didn't see it. He walked away, thinking he had found the wrong logs. He was about to leave (he walked off-camera for 1 min and 30 seconds), and then he came back to take one more look, because those logs looked like such a close match. Then, staring at the leaves in the spot he had already checked, he suddenly saw that the treasure was there after all. He said it was almost impossible to see.

Turns out, Nibi the beaver won't have to learn how to live in the wild on its own after all.

The beloved animal, which has been in the care of Massachusetts' Newhouse Wildlife Rescue for two years, started the week with an eviction order — the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife said it would have to go back to the wild on Tuesday.

But after Gov. Maura Healey paused that plan, she decided to let Nibi stay at the facility as an educational animal, which Newhouse's owners had been pushing for.

“Nibi has captured the hearts of many of our residents, mine included,” Healey said in a statement Thursday. “We’re excited to share that we have issued a permit for Nibi to remain in Newhouse’s care, continuing to educate the public about this important species. I’m grateful to our state’s dedicated wildlife biologists who work every day to care for Massachusetts wildlife, and I hope Nibi inspires more people to protect our natural world.”

The story of Nibi the beaver, who's been in the care of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue, has captivated many, and when Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey heard the animal was being ordered released into the wild, over protests that Nibi has no family or survival skills, she intervened. Follow NBC10 Boston: https://instagram.com/nbc10boston https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston https://twitter.com/NBC10Boston

While the goal of wildlife rehabilitators is to get animals that are sick or otherwise need care back out into the wild, state officials noted in an announcement, but in rare cases, permits can allow them to be used in educational settings.

A copy of Nibi's permit was filed in Middlesex Superior Court Thursday as part of the Newhouse Wildlife Rescue's lawsuit to keep Nibi; a hearing had been scheduled for Friday.

"I'm just thankful, I'm very thankful," a relieved Jane Newhouse, a founder of the Chelmsford nonprofit, said in a quick video reacting to the decision that she posted to Facebook.

The state's legal filing noted that "Newhouse Wildlife Rescue has raised Nibi from a 1-month-old kit to a healthy, adult beaver. Through this permit, Plaintiff may continue to care and train Nibi, and accordingly, MassWildlife has fulfilled all aspects of the relief that is sought in Plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction."

Newhouse rescued the 1 lb. newborn beaver on the side of the road in Sturbridge in 2022, and she has lived at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue ever since.

She went viral that November, when Newhouse shared a video of her building a dam indoors, apparently — and relatably — to keep her roommate from coming back in.

10/5/24 UPDATE: We now know the identity of the clever treasure hunter who tracked down the gold statue.

A massive, digital treasure hunt for a very real pair of prizes, including a gold statue worth more than $25,000, has ended as the statue was found in the woods of Massachusetts.

But the person who found the Project Skydrop statue — and has the right to claim an $87,600.00 bounty — has yet to come forward.

The treasure hunt, previously described to NBC10 Boston by a cofounder as a "real-world adventure," stirred major interest from puzzle enthusiasts and others. The founders created clues to make this treasure hunt hard, but not too hard, sharing a search area where the 10-ounce, 24-karat gold statue could be that shrank every day. People could also pay $20 to receive a daily clue, which helped fund the bounty.

People are searching for a golden statue worth more than $25,000.

The circle was centered roughly on Greenfield, Massachusetts, north along the Connecticut River from Springfield.

The person who tracked the statue down was seen on cameras grabbing the puzzle off the floor, but the Skydrop organizers say they haven't heard from the person yet — though someone else, a market owner in Erving, Massachusetts, met him while out hiking and shared images.

Cofounder Jason Rohrer shared this statement in an email Wednesday:

I was shocked last night at around 6pm when I checked the live camera feed and saw that the treasure was gone. My wife was shouting from the other room, 'Oh my god! It's gone! Jason, it's gone!' For the time being, the winner is mysterious, and it was pretty hard to sleep last night thinking about this, wondering how he solved it. From what we've been able to gather from the people who met him, he seems like a scientist who used lots of data to narrow down the locations, including weather patterns and tree habitat maps. Very impressive! I was pretty sure it would be impossible to solve for a few more days, but then again, there are very smart people out there. I was prepared to be surprised by an early find. Thirteen days in, though, it was a long and amazing hunt. It's cool that the mystery continues, at least for the time being.

Four-inch neon green invaders are popping up around Boston, startling residents and tourists alike.

Why it matters: Massachusetts is the northernmost area where the invasive Joro spider has made landfall.

The plump green bug was spotted near the State House on Beacon Hill, setting off a frenzy in the media and online.

Driving the news: Beacon Hill resident Joe Schifferdecker saw one of the spiders hanging around outside his Mt. Vernon Street home this week.

Yes, but: Despite alarming headlines, Joro spiders pose little threat to humans or the local ecosystem.

What they're saying: "It looks like the Joro could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering," Georgia's Odum School of Ecology researcher Andy Davis told Axios.

Zoom out: The arachnids are native to East Asia and started popping up in the southeast U.S. a decade ago.

Fun fact: Joros tend to consume anything that lands in their silky death traps – except monarch butterflies, which a recent study co-authored by Davis suggests they cut out of their webs.

What's next: Spider researchers expect the Joros to continue spreading farther north across the rest of the East Coast.

The bottom line: Joro spiders look freaky, but they're welcome to eat as many mosquitos as they can.