Diffuse Aurora Filling the Sky
When I walked out my door a diffuse aurora filled the entire sky. Multiple bands were starting to condense and brighten. It was an incredible sight - even the stars were getting drowned out. There's the Pleiades cluster over the 3rd tree from the left.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
End of the Road
I quickly found myself running to get to the trails making it only to the end of the street when the aurora really started taking off.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
The sky is incredible
I turned around - looking back toward my house. The western sky was completely lit up.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Structure
I turned back around - the blob was brightening to the northeast and a bright band just south of it was developing really cool structure.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Structure dwindles
Literally 5 seconds after the previous photo was taken.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
The northern sky
I really should have been shooting at about 1/60 of a second here - all the structure and brilliant pinks in these bands have been washed out by the super fast motion at a 10/25 sec. It was kind of the theme of the night, always getting caught off-gaurd.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
A bright aurora
I had to underexpose a bit to avoid totally blowing out and oversaturating the aurora. This was probably the brightest band I have ever seen.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
It broke up quickly
That amazing band disintegrated as quickly as it appeared. Giving me time to run to another location and get to look in another direction.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Aurora band reforming
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
The aurora creeps up
It didn't stay broken up for long and started to brighten on the horizon.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Magical Forest
The aurora borealis dances over a boreal forest in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Blog: http://lwpetersen.com/photo-blog/week-northern-lights-wouldnt-quit/alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Magical Forest - Black and White
Incredible northern lights display over a snow-clad forest in Fairbanks, Alaska.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Taking control of the sky
Cranking my neck up at the eastern sky
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Turn to the west
I had my eyes trained on the eastern sky for a while. Then I turned around to this sight.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Explosions in the sky
Stunning aurora display over Fairbanks, Alaska.
alaskaaurora borealisblack and whitebwnight skynorthern lights
The Western Sky Erupts
There's just no end to this show!
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Green
This was one band that just exploded over my head. I could see two more doing the same thing to the north and the southern sky was just diffuse green.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Aurora Storm
An awesome and strengthening aurora band slowly drifts south as it condenses and intensifies.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Condensing
The bright auroral band (in the photo above) condensed and brightened. I had to lower the exposure again to keep from overexposing the aurora. The pinks still got washed out a bit.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Bands moving south
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Spreading out
The bands overhead started to diffuse out quite a bit. There were still strong bands on the northern horizon.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
The moon and the aurora
Th moon and the aurora
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Pulsating
Between 2:30 and 3:00 am there was a drifting, pulsating aurora overhead. It was fairly diffuse, nowhere near as bright as earlier, but it was really cool to watch as it filled the sky with the bright moon.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Coming Back
Some bands started to re-form again. Still fairly diffuse.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestfairbanksnight skynorthern lights
Aurora Spiral
The aurora came out again Wednesday evening, but it was nothing like the display the night and morning before. There was this cool spiral in the sky that seemed pretty stable - it didn't change much over 5 minutes. Blogpost: http://lwpetersen.com/photo-blog/week-northern-lights-wouldnt-quit/
aurora borealisnorthern lightsfairbanksalaskanight skytreesboreal forest
The spiral returns
About 10 minutes after the spiral dissipated, it came back in almost exactly the same location. This time it didn't hang around for long.
alaskaaurora borealisboreal forestnight skynorthern lightswinter
