Aurora spotting!


 

We geared up with our rented outerwear and headed to the lobby for our tour. Nine PM must be the appointed pick up time for such things as the hotel lobby was flooded with scores of Canada Goose parka clad visitors, each group with its own color of parka. My Backyard Tours runs a small group size tour company. On our tour there were three guests and two hosts. We piled in the van and headed up to a private cabin on a lake. All the cottages here are off the grid.  The short walk from parking to cabin was well lit with solar lights, and the trusty outhouse was pointed out to us.  The cabin was toasty warm when we arrived and lit with propane lights. Host Bill Braden, a writer and photographer, helped folks get their cameras set up, then we went outside to see the sights.

The aurora cooperated beautifully. Beginning as a cloudy plume on the horizon, it soon formed an arc spanning the entire sky. The backdrop of pine trees, snow-covered wilderness and one of the most beautiful star-studded night skies I've ever seen made the vista quite awe inspiring. We took a number of breaks, chatting in the warm cabin, peeking outside periodically to see what was developing. 

Eventually we walked out on to the lake for a photo session. To the naked eye the aurora looks like a cloud with a subtle green cast.  Through the camera, the green is more intense, and subtle variations tending to yellow and pink are picked up. Bill took some stunning photos, and our fellow visitor, Myra, showed her love of photography by taking many beautiful shots and setting up a time-lapse sequence on her Go Pro.

At one point Bill took a thermos of boiling water and poured it on the ice. By setting flashlights on the clear ice, we could see the stress fractures and encapsulated bubbles in the ice. You could also see the bottom of the ice shelf about two feet down.

The aurora had been morphing this whole time and filled the whole sky as we went back to the cabin where Margaret, owner of Peterson Lodge, had made fresh cranberry bannock, hot tea and cocoa. Yum.  It turned out to be Myra's 30th birthday, so we sang her happy birthday. 

All too soon it was time to leave. We basked in the glow of having witnessed this most glorious event and having met such nice people.


The photos below are all taken by the talented Bill Braden (http://www.billbradenphoto.com/):

Nonna 1 and Nonna 2, aurora in night sky and illuminated ice patch at their feet.  Note how clear the ice is and how dramatic the stress fractures and encapsulated bubbles are.

The Two Nonne with Myra, northern lights.

Spectacular night sky.

The Two Nonne and  Margaret hamming it up with the northern lightss.

This night's aurora was calm, that is, not a lot of "dancing", but you can see from all these photos that the lights were continually changing.

Comments

  1. Tia LauraJanuary 16, 2018 at 4:23 PM

    Day one and you've already seen the Northern Lights! Someone did a good job timing your trip!

    ReplyDelete

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