Photography-Life in Alaska-Random Thoughts
Photography highlighting Alaska, the most beautiful place on earth.
It's been so long since we've seen any kind of snow. Too little, too late, though. They had to bring in 7 train car loads of snow from Fairbanks just so they could hold the shortened Iditarod Ceremonial Start tomorrow in downtown Anchorage.
Not 15 minutes after I posted the Milky Way shot and lamented that we hadn't been seeing any aurora, I looked out the living room window and this was happening! A nice little show that cranked up nicely around midnight and stayed fairly strong until 1:30 am. It never got terribly high in the sky, but some nice spikes here and there. Fun to shoot.
No aurora so far, but my God, the stars are incredible. The Milky Way is arcing completely across the sky over the house and of course, there was one of the brightest falling stars I've seen in years--in the exact opposite direction the camera was pointed ;) Even caught a satellite track in the center of the shot. Click on this one to view full size.
Shot this back in the spring of 2011 up in Turnagain Pass when we had real winters with real snow that we could cross-country ski on until late April or so. The past 3 winters--not so much.
Saturday is the Ceremonial Start of the 2016 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. There's still absolutely no snow in Anchorage, so the Alaska Railroad is bringing in 7 rail cars of snow from Fairbanks to dump on the city streets. The ceremonial start is purely for fun and the spectators that line 4th Avenue and all along the trail to Campbell Airstrip. My guess is they're going to have to shorten this drastically to keep the dogs safe. I'll be doing live camera again this year for KTUU Channel 2.
The 2015 Iditarod Ceremonial Start. Good dogs!