Aurora Borealis on my Last Night in Alaska

Aurora borealis
Aurora near Juneau, Alaska
The Aurora borealis in all of its glory showed up on my very last night in Alaska. I was wrapping up a wonderful week-long trip including bears, humpbacks, calving glaciers, and ice gardens, but it seemed that Alaska wanted to send me out with a bang.
  Around 12:30am our deckhand woke me up with the message of Northern Lights. As the expedition leader I am who gets to wake up and make the call to either wake up all of the passengers if its good, or let them sleep if its not. Either way it usually means a long night. So I put on some warm clothes, splashed some water on my face, and walked up on deck to a very mediocre show of the Northern Lights. But it was good enough so I made the announcement for people to get up and outside. As the passengers started trickling sleepily out of the cabins the lights dimmed a bit, but then to my great pleasure they came back with a vengeance. They became started dancing across the sky, almost like watching music, so I ran back in and grabbed my camera.

 I did a bit of research on what causes the Aurora and it seems that some of the cause is still unknown. However the general idea is that charged particles from the sun hit the Earth's magnetic field which causes the eerie lights in the night sky. Oxygen emissions cause the green and orange-red colors, while Nitrogen emissions cause the blue and red. We mostly see green at these latitudes in Southeast Alaska.
  Nature is a pretty amazing thing. No matter how many places I travel I can still find beautiful things everywhere I look. Luckily for me I have gotten into photography, which makes me walk a little slower with a much better eye for beauty in nature.

Find These Photos and More for Sale at  www.daimarsphotos.com

Comments

  1. RobertNovember 15, 2019 at 10:51 PM

    Great blog. Chasing northern lights is difficult but I did research on it what is the best time to see northern lights. So, I clearly saw the wonderful view of northern lights. You can also plan your Northern lights vacation alaska

    ReplyDelete

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