Last night we had a magnetic storm, that triggered a major aurora that danced for more than 5 hours. I watched better than half of it, starting at about 9:30. Often the aurora were in constant motion, flashing not only green and white but also magenta and red with a touch of blue.
Last night’s aurora was hard to capture with my camera because there was a lot of humidity in the air. We were watching through a haze so photos are not crisp and sharp. The lights were moving so much that when I set a 10 second exposure, they looked blurred. Last night the aurora flared. If I set a 13 sec exposure and there was an outburst at 5 seconds the picture was too bright.
The aurora were all over the sky, to the north, yes, but also to the south. After a while I stopped shooting and watched in wonder. I watched from 4 locations. Most of the shots were taken from the turnout before the Ferry Terminal, others from the Old Sitka parking lot at Starrigavan. There are two pics shot from the University parking lot with the whole lit up town in the foreground. The last three shots were from my deck looking south southwest.
At Old Sitka it was like a town gathering. Every parking place was taken up and Halibut Point Road had a lot of cars parked along the roadside with people watching. Not much sleep last night but — just wow.
Is Aurora singular or plural? I think plural but my Microsoft checker thinks otherwise. I write “these aurora,” and “the aurora were,” but sometimes the “aurora was” sounds better so I use that. Microsoft does not like that inconsistency.
Thank you for sharing these marvelous pics. Nature is great!
Awesome photos. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Rich. We got some of these views but somewhat softer as the distant city got in the way