April Aurora

The image below was made at 2:38 A.M. on the morning of April 30, 2011. I usually check the aurora forecast around sunset or slightly before to see if there is any chance of northern lights and sure enough, the forecast models were predicting a decent chance of seeing the lights on this particular night. So, as soon it was dark enough, I began my ritual of walking out into the backyard every 15 to 20 minutes to check the sky. At a little after 10:00 P.M. I noticed the first hint of the Aurora up in the sky. I quickly gathered my gear and headed out to my first preferred location for shooting the lights.

After an hour and a half of watching, all I saw was just a faint glow in the Northern sky. I headed back home just before midnight to grab a snack, with the plan to head back out to a different location for a couple more hours. After my snack I headed back out, picking up my friend Jessica along the way. She had never seen the northern lights before, so I was really hoping they would put on a good show. We arrived at the next location about 12:30 A.M. and could still see only a very faint glow in the sky. I had two other locations I wanted to check, so we went to each of those spots and watched for a while, again seeing just a very faint glow.

At 2:00 A.M. we decided to start heading back and as we were driving past one of the spots we had previously stopped at, I noticed the lights were starting to get brighter and more active. I parked the truck and we got out to watch for a bit. As soon as we got out of the truck the lights were dancing and shimmering slowly just above the horizon. Jessica was quite excited, she hadn't really expected to see a good show her first time out but indeed here it was! It's pretty cool to share someone's first experience with the Aurora. They never know quite what to think :-) One thing's for sure, they are pretty much guaranteed to be blown away by the "cool" factor of this, one of nature's most amazing spectacles.