Oh, what a heavenly light--and night!

By far, the most intense, most active, and longest lasting aurora display of the season here in Anchorage.  She started showing around 10:30 pm and then at 2 am this morning the aurora just exploded!  At times the sky was completely filled with aurora from horizon to horizon in all directions.  Wave upon wave of color, curtains, and spikes.  Corona exploding directly overhead and raining sheets of colors.  

Around 3 am, some puffy clouds began moving in, but they just added to the drama of the night.   I finally had to give up around 3:30 am--just couldn't shoot anymore.   As usual, I'm going to post way too many pictures, but I hope you like them.   Trust me, you want to see these on a big monitor :)

Oh, you are such a tease sometimes ;)

Stayed up all night again for what was forecast to be another big show.  Hah!  Lady Aurora teased me all night long.  She'd get just strong enough for me to put all my winter gear on and head outside to shoot--and she'd disappear!  I'd wait patiently for a half-hour or so, give up and go back inside, take off all my gear, and sure enough, there she was again--whispering to come back outside.  Repeat this scene over and over until 4 am.   This was the only decent shot I got all night around 12:30 am, but you can bet I'll be out there again tonight because the forecast is really strong :)

click image for full-screen

Another wonderful night of Aurora hunting.

Second night in a row of really nice, active aurora.  This time she started just before 1 am, and after about 15 minutes of intense color and movement, she settled down a bit but was still dancing until I finally gave up at 2:30 am.    She climbed quite a bit higher tonight, with lots of curtains, spikes and waves.  The second night in a row I missed a really bright falling star!  I think it's a cosmic plot that they wait until I'm pointed in a different direction.  Gotta love shooting aurora this time of year when it's not below zero :)

Good to see you again :)

Thought we just might have a strong auroral show last night/early this morning.  It started around 11 pm with a really high, wide band of green that sometimes is the indication that a big show is coming.  She cranked up right around midnight and was pretty active for about an hour, but the bright stuff never got very high off the horizon.  Still, fun to shoot--especially when it's warm at night!