Northern Lights
The northern lights just a few yards away from our cabin.
The Sky and the Northern Lights
We've had absolutely incredible northern lights displays the last few nights in Fairbanks. The nearly full moon wonderfully lit all the snow draped on the trees. It's been tough to get any sleep the last few days . . . yet I hope this keeps up!
Three days and two nights on the Granite Tors Trail. Near Fairbanks, Alaska.
Me under the northern lights and a moonlit forest.
A satellite passes by as the aurora comes out, brilliantly, during twilight.
Panorama overlooking the Chena River Valley from the Granite Tors trail
While driving back to Fairbanks from the White Mountains we saw the sky erupt from within the car. With the corona right overhead I pulled over as soon as possible near Chatanika and just caught the tail end of it.
A moment of brightness from an otherwise dull display - near Chena Hot Springs Road. The bright 'star' on the right is Jupiter.
This was probably the brightest the aurora got while I was out at Angel Rocks. I was surprised that I could see the high altitude reds with my eye - I usually can't when it's this dim.
Spruce trees swaying. It was pretty windy.
The aurora was very active on the horizon to the northeast. I almost missed that the entire sky above me was pulsating, with color! I've never seen any other color, but green with pulsating aurora. This was really filling the sky; you can see the constellation Orion bottom center, and the Pleiades cluster up and right.
Looking south from my campsite after the corona event.
The aurora borealis dances over a boreal forest in Fairbanks, Alaska. Blog: http://lwpetersen.com/photo-blog/week-northern-lights-wouldnt-quit/
Watching the aurora down in the Goldstream Valley. Lights from the homes on the hill, some purple at high altitudes, brilliant night!
It's hard to beat nights with a full moon, snow-covered forests, and bright northern lights! Aurora from Fairbanks.
Taken in the winter of 2012 on Murphy Dome. I definitely drove our car into a snow bank on this lovely evening. Luckily the aurora stayed out long enough that even after all the digging, flagging down cars, and towing the car out of a ditch we still were able to watch the show.
Wind gets funneled through this spot, completely stripping an area of snow behind this rock outcropping.
It didn't stay broken up for long and started to brighten on the horizon.
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 bursts overhead from the bands that had been sitting near the horizon. Off Chena Hot Springs Road.
Aurora Over Snow Covered Trees
The scenery with the bright moonlight and northern lights was simply spectacular.
Shimmering rays overhead
After the brilliant coronal display, the aurora faded and diffused out across more of the sky. Some clouds in the sky added some nice texture, and the autumn colors were also nice.
Gorgeous aurora band from Fairbanks, Alaska with a full moon illuminating the forest.
At the Red Squirrel Campground off of Chena Hot Springs Road. The aurora was mostly diffuse most of the night, not very active or interesting except for a few moments. Still a nice night to see the lights over some non-frozen water.
I had my eyes trained on the eastern sky for a while. Then I turned around to this sight.
Aurora borealis in late August over from the Goldstream Valley. Fairbanks, Alaska.
Not a minute after that eruption on the horizon this auroral corona danced overhead and seemed to last for a really long time. Usually only appearing for a few seconds, I think I had about a minute of shooting this one. In the center you might be able to make out the big dipper, but the stars were pretty dim compared to the northern lights that night!
The northern lights dance over a sparse boreal forest near Fairbanks, Alaska. These spectacular shows make long, cold, dark winters worthwhile.
Then northern sky just erupted behind those smaller structures in the band. This was the best early morning aurora I've ever seen!
This was a cool night to watch the aurora since there was also plenty of ice crystals in the air to create the atmospheric optical effects of the moon dog (paraselene) and 22 degree halo.
A small stand of spruce on a cold winter night on Murphy Dome with the aurora borealis slowly making it's way out into the sky.
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.
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.
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.
Snow-clad boreal forest illuminated by the moon with the aurora borealis dancing overhead.
The aurora looked like it might act up for a few minutes before settling back below the horizon. It was really windy out, hence all the motion blur in the trees. Ursa Major on the right.
Snow covered taiga with some aurora borealis
