A short but spectacular aurora borealis outing

Posted On February 27, 2023

I hadn’t planned to go aurora-hunting last night, it just worked out that way, and I’m sure glad it did. I had seen a very good aurora forecast, but also saw that the weather forecast was for clouds and flurries, so gave it little thought.

As the evening progressed, though, the skies remained clear, so at about 9:30 I laid down on Bella’s dog-bed with her for an hour-long nap – just in case an aurora option appeared.

When I got up, I saw that my Yukon Aurora Alert group had lit up with reports of a display starting a few minutes before. I was very tired but at 10:45 went out onto the back deck and shot a couple of photos. Loading them onto the computer and seeing them on the big screen was what it took to light a fire – I needed to go for a drive. I told Cathy I’d only be an hour or so, as I had a busy morning ahead today, with therapist appointments for both me (at 09:00) and Bella (at 11:00), and needed to be well rested to deal with them.

This was my first aurora shot with my new-to-me camera body (a Canon EOS 7D Mark II) so I was prepared for some exposure challenges, but I guessed the bright aurora to be good for ISO 800 at 10 seconds and got it right. The lens is a full-manual Rokinon 10mm f 2.8.

---

With the temperature at -23°C/-9°F, I drove east on the Alaska Highway to a spot with a broad view to the north of the Yukon River. The shoulder of the road there is barely wide enough for a car so I left the Jeep running with the lights on, thus the red glow from the tail lights. This is looking towards home and Whitehorse.

---

Swinging the camera to the right a bit, this is the Yukon River view. I have many photos from this spot, in all seasons.

---

Even if you don’t stop to savour the experience, driving along the Alaska Highway during a display like this is pretty incredible. This is the Jeep parked to take the two shots above this one.

---

The next photo was shot from a side road that overlooks the Lewes River dam (a.k.a.Marsh Lake dam). This is looking down the Yukon River from the dam (Lewes is the historic name of this section of the Yukon River).

---

The next stop was the primary destination I had intended on – the “blue bridge” over the Yukon River. The aurora was so bright I was down to 6-second exposures now. The moon that’s in many of the photos was about 50% full, enough to light up the snow without overpowering the aurora.

---

The colours and the movement of this display were wonderful and constantly changing. This was shot at 11:28. The white lights are on the Lewes River dam. Using the tree to block the brightest area of lighting on the dam worked well.

---

I had accidentally left a door ajar on the Jeep, but decided I liked what it added to the photo.

---

There was virtually no traffic, but I did manage to catch a pickup going across the bridge. Normally I use a much longer exposure for traffic lights, but didn’t have a chance to change it from 6 seconds.

---

While most of the aurora action was in the northern sky, the south did light up for a few minutes.

---

This explosion of light only lasted for a couple of seconds at 11:34 – I sure would have liked to play with different compositions with it.

---

This was a few seconds later, with a 3.2-second exposure. Note the dramatic difference in the aurora in photos shot just a few seconds apart.

---

A much quieter southern sky over the Alaska Highway, with an 8-second exposure.

---

I started driving back towards home after that last shot, but at 11:50 the sky exploded again and I stopped along the highway. This was the sky to the south…

---

…and this was looking northwest.

---

The display got so incredible that I started thinking about continuing on this little photography journey instead of going home.

---

But then my decision got made for me – my camera battery died!!

I was only 5 minutes from home when I shot those last 4 photos, so soon had my battery in the charger and was asleep. Just after 0:400 I woke up, though, and there was still enough of a display to lure me out into my driveway in my pyjamas for a few shots 🙂

---

And that ends this amazing night with Lady Aurora. The aurora is even stronger tonight, though, so I’ll be heading out again in the next couple of hours…

---

Edit: I went out for a couple of hours, but saw nothing. I intended to go to Windy Arm (south of Carcross), but the skies clouded over a few miles south of home. An aurora display did arrive after midnight but it was quite mild compared to this night.