The Aurora is on a Roll!

We had a long string of nights when the aurora was active in March. I was able to get out and see it a few times, and was treated to some awesome views!

March 8...

This night was a (relatively) organized effort to find the aurora.  We ended up going to Beluga Point along Turnagain Arm (in an attempt to get away from the crowds) and watched the show from there. Dare I say that "aurora chasing" around here is similar to storm chasing in the plains?  It's true, to some extent. Anyway, we got set up and I got a few photos. 

The moon was a full one this night, so the aurora wasn't nearly as bright as it could have been. It sure was a bright moon, so I had to get a few scenic shots.

That's the moon shining into the top left part of the photo... and shining on the ice/water of Turnagain Arm.

The aurora was a little slow getting going, but we did see this "wave" of lights moving southward.

At about 12:30am, it suddenly got quite a bit more exciting.  What we saw from this point on has become the best aurora I've seen so far.  I can't even imagine what it would have looked like with no moonlight and no clouds!  Pretty awesome.

The good stuff is just getting started...

Now we're talking... very cool!

One of my favorite shots of the night!!

Oh man... I can't keep up with it... where do I point the camera?!

This one is looking straight overhead.  Rays of aurora coming straight down at us.  This is a first for me!

That night was pretty spectacular!!  My next opportunity to catch the aurora was late on the 15th.

A friend came to visit in mid-March, and she arrived around midnight. The aurora was visible when she arrived (she even got to see it from the plane!), so we decided to go to Point Woronzof on the way home from the airport and see what we could see. This is what we found...



 Two nights later, on St. Patrick's Day, we drove north to Talkeetna to hopefully get another great view of the aurora. Well, we didn't find any aurora in Talkeetna, but we did find that it's quite the happening place on St. Patrick's Day!  We decided to head back toward Anchorage, and then stopped along the way at Thunderbird Falls to try again.  We waited there for awhile, and finally got a very brief show.  Because it was so brief, I only got one decent shot...

'Til next time...