Easter Sunshine
Man, that sun sure feels good after a long winter ;)
Man, that sun sure feels good after a long winter ;)
We haven't had any moose in the yard all winter, which is very strange. That changed this morning when this young bull and his Mom showed up. She was hidden in trees taking a nap while Junior trimmed the bushes. Why are the tastiest bits always the highest ones?
An amazing night of Aurora over Alaska. We had a very rare visitor as well. STEVE. Steve stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. This auroral phenomenon has been debated back and forth for years by scientists. Until very recently most didn't think it existed, but just in the past several months NASA has concluded that it does exist.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/mystery-of-purple-lights-in-sky-solved-with-help-from-citizen-scientists
This is only the second time in 9 years that I've seen it here in Bear Valley. It looks like a river of light and energy that stays in one place for a long time as opposed to a normal aurora display which moves and dances and changes pretty rapidly. Last night, STEVE ran from horizon to horizon well south of the faint aurora that was on the northern horizon from around 11:55 pm until 12:30 am this morning.
Then at around 1:15 am the sky exploded with brilliant aurora. Bright greens, pinks, and magenta filled the northern half of the sky until around 2:45 am. A wonderful display.
Finally! We got some half-way decent aurora here in Anchorage. It's been far too long since we've had clear skies when there's been aurora so this was a nice treat. Shot between 2 am and 5 am. Pretty active display that would come and go. None of the patterns lasted very long. Fun to shoot.
This little tailless Red Squirrel has lived around the house for a couple of years, but I hadn't seen him all this winter until this morning and was getting worried. He looks just fine ;)