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.

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.

The sky is incredible

I turned around - looking back toward my house. The western sky was completely lit up.

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.

Structure dwindles

Literally 5 seconds after the previous photo was taken.

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.

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.

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.

Aurora band reforming

The aurora creeps up

It didn't stay broken up for long and started to brighten on the horizon.

Magical Forest

The aurora borealis dances over a boreal forest in Fairbanks, Alaska. Blog: http://lwpetersen.com/photo-blog/week-northern-lights-wouldnt-quit/

Magical Forest - Black and White

Incredible northern lights display over a snow-clad forest in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Taking control of the sky

Cranking my neck up at the eastern sky

Turn to the west

I had my eyes trained on the eastern sky for a while. Then I turned around to this sight.

Fast Lights

Shimmering rays overhead

Explosions in the sky

Stunning aurora display over Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Western Sky Erupts

There's just no end to this show!

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.

Aurora Storm

An awesome and strengthening aurora band slowly drifts south as it condenses and intensifies.

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.

Bands moving south

Spreading out

The bands overhead started to diffuse out quite a bit. There were still strong bands on the northern horizon.