A Manitoba couple has a big orange box in their yard — a box that scientists hope will unlock the mysteries of the night sky.

A camera installed on the roof of Edith Olson's metal shed in Lac du Bonnet, about 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg, is connected to antennas and the aforementioned orange box, which is packed with electronic and computer equipment.

The gear comes compliments of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, as part of a new study called THEMIS — Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms.

Scientists hope the devices will help them better understand the aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights.

"There are a lot of things about it that are still unknown and the mission's objective is to study the substorms and how the aurora plays into all the different things that go on in space," Olson told CBC News on Thursday.

The camera, which takes pictures of the night sky every five seconds, synchronizes with 19 other "Earth-based observatories" — 15 of them in Canada and four in Alaska. The collected data will give researchers information on the northern lights as viewed from the Earth.

Images from space

Later this year, NASA will launch several rockets into the Earth's magnetosphere to capture images of the northern lights from space.

"They will send the data from up top while we send the data from below," Olson said.

Olson said NASA and CSA picked her house for a simple reason.

"I think the main thing is location, location, location," she said.

"We happen to be located in one of the spots where they're putting in the cameras, and they approached us and asked us if we would be interested."

Exciting opportunity

For Olson, a recently retired science teacher, hosting NASA research equipment has been exciting.

"As a science teacher, one of the things that you're always interested is in the advancement of knowledge, and especially in science," she said. "And I thought the frontiers of the world right now, the new edge, is out in space. And this is the coolest thing."

The idea has also gone well with Olson's three grown children, one of whom is an engineer who's currently part of an R&D team redesigning a new American space shuttle.

"We always tease him that we worked for NASA first," Olson joked.

The gear is expected to remain on Olson's roof for at least the next two years. The THEMIS project is expected to run until 2010.