Officially, today marked the end of Dave's itinerary, and some headed off home, no doubt sick of the aurora by now. For those of us who stuck around though, we were privileged to get one more excellent display from the same location as the night before. By now, we were getting pretty well known at the local Fred Meyer 1 hour photo processing lab, and I have to say, they did a pretty good job (I guess they must be pretty used to aurora shots by now). Once again, we had the complete auroral arc, and occasional bouts of activity just inside that, which spread further north and west as the night wore on.
Just to prove that I was there, here are some
self-portraits (as if you can tell that's me under all those layers!).
The one on the right has me, Lisa, and Dave modelling this year's fashion
for aurora-watching.
This display also featured the purple tinge associated with neutral
nitrogen molecules.
I would have loved to have stayed all night, but I was due to catch a flight back to Anchorage at 6am, so I finally had to bid farewell to the aurora borealis. It was certainly more impressive than even I had expected, and I can heartily recommend Alaska as the place to go. Just be sure to wrap up warm!
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