Aurora Borealis

The last two nights I've been witness to an amazing display of God and nature. The past 4+ years I've seen the "Northern Lights" about 5 or 6 times in Alaska. On two occasions they appeared as a blue hazy cloud over the Chugach mountains in Eagle River.

They are more frequent and visible North of the Arctic Circle. This is partially due to latitude, and partially due to lack of light pollution given off by urban area's. Earlier in October on a couple clear late evenings I noticed a green hazy cloud growing and waving across the night sky, this is not what I saw last night. The last two nights I can't even begin to describe, nor capture on film what I saw. It was one of the most entertaining natural phenomena I have ever seen.

These images were taken about 11-12pm last night (October 16th). I used my Nikon D80 set to shutter priority (S) with a Vanguard tripod and Nikon shutter remote. After some experimentation I found the best shutter speed was 20 or 30 seconds at f3.5. These were taken with the stock Nikkor 18-55 lens.

Little or no editing has been done to enhance these images. Some were slightly tweaked using either iPhoto or Aperture.

NOTE: These images may appear different on other monitors. I apologize if they don't turnout that great on your screen, maybe try another. I did some pre-editing on my iMac, which is only about a year old; then uploaded them on my 3 year old MacBook at the school- they did appear different on the older screen.
The view is looking almost due West from our House in Arctic Village. The streaks of green ran all the way across the night sky, and turned to haze in the South and South Eastern sky.

The "curtains" of green were constantly moving and changing shapes. At times almost diminishing before growing and glowing again.
Here is the National Audubon Society: Field Guide to the Night Sky definition-

"Auroras: Solar phenomena observable from Earth without any specialized equipment are the auroras, aurora borealis and aurora australis, also known as the northern and southern lights, respectively. These appear as glowing areas high in the atmosphere, caused when high-energy atomic particles from the Sun- usually from a solar flare- hit the upper atmosphere of Earth and make the atoms there glow. Because the solar particles are charged, they are deflected be Earth's geomagnetic field to the magnetic poles. Auroras therefore occur most often in high northern and far southern latitudes but have occasionally been seen near the equator. Scientists can predict auroras with some accuracy by observing storms on the Sun. Auroras appear in many forms: some are faint whitish glows in the sky, others are reddish or greenish arcs, curtains, or rays. They sometimes change rapidly, with waves of brightness seeming to wash over them. Certainly auroras are among the more awesome and eerie natural phenomena."

The self portrait images were again taken with the tripod and remote, but also using a slow flash setting in programable (P) mode followed by a 20 second shutter.
It is easy to see how people become addicted to following and capturing the northern lights. There are many legends, myths, and superstitions about the origins and purpose of these displays. Some Alaskan native myths believe they are souls dancing in the sky, other ancient European cultures believe it was angels clashing and battling in the heavens. In ancient Chinese lore they were described as the breath of dragons blowing fireballs across the night sky. The Vikings thought they were reflections from the shields of Valkyries, maidens escorting dead warriors to heaven. Japanese believe they are associated with the life giving mysteries of conception, and believe any child conceived under the Aurora will be fortunate in life.

They were originally named in 1621 by a French scientist after Aurora, Roman goddess of dawn.

I look forward to continue capturing them on camera. If they appear again tonight I may try and use my video camera to film the show.