Last night the skies were perfectly clear, but there was literally no Aurora activity – the “solar power output” graph on the Aurora app that we’ve been using had dropped straight down to essentially zero. We still kept a watch out from our room, but I finally dozed off around midnight, and Audrey was in bed a short time later. Then at 1am the voice of Mok, the lodge’s owner, crackled over the room’s walkie talkie to say that there were lights visible in the west. Half awake, I stumbled to the window, and apparently the solar forecast had changed because the most intense band of Auroras that we’ve yet seen was dancing quickly across the sky. I woke Audrey up, grabbed my camera, threw on my Arctic gear, and then spent the next hour braving -20F to photograph the best Northern Lights display that we’ve seen so far.
Adding to the magic, the universe apparently has me confused for someone with a surplus of good karma, and thus enhanced the cosmic wonders by launching two rockets from the nearby Poker Flats Research Range. I was looking away when the first one shot into the air and didn’t catch a photo, but it was a neat sight seeing Auroras with a rocket streaking through them, followed a few seconds later by a massive roar of sound.
Tonight the Aurora forecast is for high activity, but unfortunately the sky is entirely covered by clouds, so our odds of seeing anything seem low. Nonetheless, as last night proved, anything can happen, so we’ll be up watching the skies again this evening.
