Our Aurora

Photo by Rebekah Cadigan

Just when one begins to take Alaska for granted something happens to remind you of what a truly exotic place we live in. For a good month now the sun has been engulfed in solar eruptions giving off spectacular flares causing a firestorm in the northern sky. The aurora is active in all its glory. I’ve been trying for weeks to find a video worthy of the aurora borealis to share with Alaska enthusiasts and have finally concluded that the aurora isn’t something of which can be said “caught on tape”. A series of stills, beautiful as they may be, strung together and set to music doesn’t quite get to it. You have to see the lights dance. You have to do it in the wilderness, lying in a feather bed of snow, enveloped in the dark, peering strait into the sky watching this enormous presence in the heavens, like something alive, spin and shimmer and swirl and shoot across the sky. You need to be engulfed in the magnificence and power of it to know what draws so many on a winter pilgrimage to such a cold place.
Someone like the Japanese photographer who spent months in an igloo just to get a glimpse. The link connects to one man’s quest for its beauty. It will show photos and then you can click on “Return to story” for his story.

http://www.adn.com/2012/02/18/v-gallery/2325316/photographer-waits-watches-for.html#id=2325072&view=large_view

A few weeks ago Dan went to the Wasilla train station to hand the conductor a package to deliver to a friend who lives off the road system. He had run out of Nicoret and Dan had put some in a care package with some eggs from our hen house and some fresh oranges. Dan was taken by an unexpected sight for the middle of winter. Four extra train cars were traveling north full of Japanese tourists on a pilgrimage to the northern lights in quest of some hidden magic known only to them.
You have to hand it to the Japanese. One would assume a tourist charter trip like this would take months to put together, yet here they were perfectly timed for the greatest aurora show we’ve had in years. One wonders if some dedicated scientist is tucked away in some observatory making predictions months in advance of heightened solar activity so aurora worshipers, of which the Japanese have many, can time their trip for the perfect moment.

Until you can experience the real thing the closest replication I found was in a video on NBC nightly news which I have been unable to separate from the news clip. Although this  video is from Norway the lights are the same in Alaska. Think of it just as a teaser, than put seeing the aurora the right way on your B4Udie list.

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/northern-lights-shimmer-across-night-sky/6j58ftf?cpkey=00f5a835-f6fd-482c-837d-b12aa13266da%7C%7C%7C%7C

Some more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItaO7gnTOvY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFJOnwmN_8A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_vYKL8ixII&feature=related