Who needs sleep?

Another night of aurora hunting.  The forecasts said we might get a kp8 storm, which would be the strongest forecast I've ever seen on any of my aurora apps, but sadly, that's not what happened here in Bear Valley.  I could see faint aurora already around 10pm, and the clouds starting clearing out nicely.  At 1am it started to grow, and I thought it just might blow up into the show we were all hoping for.  Unfortunately, the clouds moved back in, and the aurora never really cranked up, so I gave up around 2:30am.   

Heavenly lights.

The second night in a row with gorgeous aurora displays, and I didn't have to drive 3 hours this time :)  Shot between 2 and 4am from the front deck and the driveway here in Bear Valley.  The aurora was incredibly active--dancing and streaming across the sky, sometimes pulsing with a cosmic heartbeat.  It was wonderful to see.  Click to view full size.

A night of Aurora chasing.

The aurora forecast numbers were good last night, so I drove 70 miles up to Hatcher Pass, which is one of my favorite places to shoot.  It takes about an hour and a half to get to the top, so I got there at 11pm.  And sat...and sat...and waited...and then waited some more.  The Aurora just never got going much at all, but it was fun to get some Milky Way shots.  I finally gave up at 3am and headed back to Anchorage, getting home at 4:30am.  

And of course, when I pulled in the driveway, that's when the Aurora went crazy!  It only lasted for about 30 minutes, but a really active show.  I'm sure it was awesome up in Hatcher Pass ;)  Oh well, that's how it goes.