Northern Lights

I got to cross #38 off my list this past week!  We saw the Aurora's!  FINALLY!!!!  I was starting to think they were a myth.  Something people say exists, but doesn't.  A big trick that real Alaskan's like to play on the rest of us.  But it turns out they aren't!  I was probably one of the top ten most amazing things I've ever seen in my life!  It was so amazing it truly almost made me cry.  I know that sounds so corny, but words can't even describe how beautiful and wondrous they are.  It is truly something you just have to see for yourself. 

Once we saw them out our front window, we all grabbed our stuff and bolted for the car.  We decided to drive out to the back of base so I could get some good pictures of them.  Let me tell you, everyone else on base was out there too!  While we could see them, it was really hard to get a good picture because everyone was driving by shining their headlights.  So pictures didn't turn out so well.  Add to that my 18-55mm lens did not want to take pictures in the dark.  I really need to do some more experimenting with it to see what I need to do to get it to work at night.  After fiddling with the big camera for 10 minutes and feeling my manual dexterity go I told Nate to grab me the point and shoot.  I took these pictures...

I couldn't get the damn camera on the tripod.  I decided to hold it, hoping that I could keep it still long enough.  But I couldn't.  Those pictures would have been amazing if (1) people weren't driving by and (2) I could have used the tripod.  After that failure, we decided to drive around a little more and try to find a place where no one else was.  I took this picture from in the car (using the dash as my tripod)...

I wanted to show that the moon was full and bright.  The brightness of the moon made for less visiblitity of the auroras, but it was still amazing.

Finally I remembered this place I ran at this fall behind the flight line.  I felt really isolated there.  I thought a bear was going to come get me and I also felt like it was a road I wasn't supposed to be on.  So we went out there.  And NO ONE was there.  It was the perfect place!!!!  FINALLY!  And I got my big camera to work.  I switched to my new 50mm lens and it worked like a charm!!!!  So here are the pics!  ENJOY!

My compositions sucks.  But it's really hard to frame up a picture in pitch blackness.  I think I did pretty good for my first time.