At around 8:30, I hopped in "The Swamp Donkey and hit the road. I remembered from one of my previous outings a nice place to park with a good open view of the Northern sky. This place is about 30 miles out of town, which is a good thing since light pollution makes viewing the aurora difficult. I am usually in bed by 8, so this is one of the first times I have seen an Alaskan Sunset...and it was very nice:
I arrived at my viewing location at about 9:30 ( it took a little longer to get there since I stopped to take some pictures of the sunset.) I then waited...and waited...and waited. I read that the best times to view the aurora is between 10 and 2 (also the best places to put your hands while driving!) so I knew I was in for a long, boring, and potentially very cold evening. I waited in my car, wrapped in random suit coats I have yet to bring into my apartment, for FOUR HOURS!!! At about 1:30 I went outside to use "the facilities" when I noticed a band of light starting to stretch across the northern sky. Was this it? It just looked like a low cloud illuminated by the stars (which, by the way, are very plentiful in Alaska!!) As I watched this "cloud", I saw that it was starting to get brighter, and fade in and out in certain areas...THIS WAS IT!!! I quickly grabbed my camera and tripod and sat out for an hour in 30 degree weather shooting:
Just so you know, the pictures make it look a lot more brilliant than in real life, but it was still an amazing thing to see. The photographs pick up more of the color of the winds. The human eye looks at the light and our brains turn it white, but the camera does not have that issue, so the greens are very visible. According to the website mentioned above, this was just a moderate display...I would LOVE to see one more active!
At about 2:30, my camera battery died so I decided to hit the road. Let me tell you, the drive home was the scariest 30 miles I have ever driven. It is almost 3:00 am at this point and there are moose, elk, caribou, and theoretically bears all over the place. Hitting any of these very large creatures equates to an extremely long walk home in the cold...there is no cell phone reception this far out of town. All along this stretch of road you can see skid marks from, I am guessing, avoiding very large animals. Fortunately, the only "walking obstacle" I saw on the drive back was a VERY lucky porcupine, who I was able to save by positioning my car in a way for him to slide underneath between the wheels.
I will be going on more late night photography trips to try to capture more images of the aurora. This was my first time attempting it, and I learned a few things that might make my next trip more successful. I have bookmarked the aurora forecast website and plan on checking it quite frequently.
Alright readers, that is it for today. Have a fantastic week and I will post more soon. Today (Sunday) I went out and took a lot of pictures of the town, so I will have a photo-tour of Fairbanks, AK in a week or so for you, so check back =)
Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood
2 comments:
Love the Aurora pics.
Actually it is no longer best to keep your hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel due to the increased potential of the airbag breaking your wrists.
But the photos are awesome. :-)
~ Munky
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