Tom and Kathy's Alaskan Vacation

The Northern Lights

Kathy has always wanted to see the northern lights. (OK - we both did.) We heard from a ships steward that the lights had been seen the week before, but you had to get up in the wee hours of the morning to see them. We set the alarm for 2 a.m., and stumbled to the front of the boat. (We were heading in a northern direction, so we had a fairly unobstructed view.)

At first, Kathy wasn't convinced we were seeing them. All we saw was a dull glow in the sky. I had seen pictures where this was the case, and was pretty convinced we were seeing the lights. I had brought up the camera, and held it tight to the railing of the wind-break to catch these pictures. Remember that the boat is always moving, so the stars all have a distinct motion-path to them.

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The Big Dipper is visible middle-left.	Again - Big Dipper middle-left.
Kathy first noticed the streaking - just as the boat started making a turn. It was at this point we realized that yes, indeed, this is Aurora Borealis	As time passed, the glow got noticably brighter.
It got bright enough that it was reflecting off of the water.

Up | Inside Passage | Ketchikan | The Northern Lights | Skagway | Juneau | San Francisco | Ham-bone Goof Offs

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