An aurora night at Lake Laberge and Fox Lake
Last Friday (September 27th), the aurora forecast was very good so a friend and I headed out, planning on a long night of photography.
We first went to the Lake Laberge Campground, arriving early so we could watch day transition into night. I was very surprised by how many people were camping for the weekend – the last weekend the campground is open for the season.
I shot the first photo right at 9:00 pm. All of the photos in this post were shot with my Canon EOS 7D, with a Rokinon 10mm lens, at f2.8. The first two photos were shot with 5-second exposures and ISO 800.
Our timing was perfect, as the aurora borealis began to appear just 4 minutes later. Some of you may wonder whether “aurora borealis” or “Northern Lights” is the correct term. While “Northern Lights” is an old term that has largely been replaced in common usage, everybody will understand, whichever term you use.
Darkness then came quickly. By 9:20 the aurora was getting larger and brighter. The next photo was shot with a 20-second exposure.
A 30-second exposure captured the next image. To the left, the lights of a distant jet can just be made out as it passed over.
At 9:38 there was still a bit of light in the sky to the west. The large diffuse band of aurora seen above the bright band in this and the next few photos is quite unusual.
The sky was incredibly clear, and the Milky Way was showing up well overhead. This was shot with a 30-second exposure and ISO 3200.
When the campers nearest us lit a large fire, and another RVer turned on large outside lights, it was time to leave. Before leaving, I shot a few photos that included the fire – this one at 9:44 pm.
The aurora delayed our departure by a few minutes – the next two photos show the unusual diffuse band of aurora well.
We got to the Fox Lake Campground at about 10:40. There were lots of campers here, too, and a bus full of Japanese tourists. The aurora had gotten quite dull, but my friend had brought some glowsticks and we played with them a bit. I shot the next photo right at 11:00, by which time the aurora had brightened up again.
It takes a very good aurora display for Fox Lake to be a good shooting location, as that hill on the right blocks any low displays. My friend was shooting from the end of the boat dock.
Looking back at the camping area at 11:12. Some of the tourists were using flash to take photos – extremely annoying, and ruined many of my photos.
At 11:16 there were some nice rays and reds in the display. You can see a vehicle on the North Klondike Highway in the next photo, too.
By about 11:30, my body was giving out. This is one of the ongoing problems I’m having from my injury back on August 7th. I went and sat in the car and watched from there, but a nice flare at 11:40 got me out for some photos that included the tour bus…
…and some shooting directly up, where some nice corona action was happening.
At about 12:30, we started back home. Just after 01:00, though, the aurora was so strong that I pulled over and we got a few shots from the shoulder of the highway.
After I dropped my friend off, the aurora went crazy on my drive home. I texted her and she went back out and shot for another hour, but I was done. Although it was a much shorter night than I’d planned, it was still really good.
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