Four mornings of aurora borealis at Kluane Lake, Yukon

Posted On September 13, 2021

One of the big gifts that Mother Nature sent me during our 9 days at Congdon Creek Campground on Kluane Lake was 4 mornings of aurora borealis displays. They were a very big surprise as the aurora forecast I rely on said there was pretty much no chance of seeing them. I need to change my attitude about the UAF forecasts to “the aurora forecast I used to rely on” – like wildlife sightings, the aurora just happens when it happens. The first image shows the forecast for September 7th, and it was the same for the 8th, 9th, and 10th, the other 3 mornings I was out shooting. There are 30 photos of aurora and Milky Way in this post, about 20% of what I shot.

The photos that follow were all shot with a Canon EOS 7D with a 10mm f2.5 Rokinon lens, tripod mounted. What you see here is as close to what I saw as I can get it – no camera tricks or post-processing was involved except to correct exposure errors in a couple.

September 7th

The first photo was shot on September 7th at 03:56. I had gotten up a few minutes before that simply because I was drawn to look outside. Seeing a small band of light, I got my gear together and went down to the beach in front of our campsite. It was probably about +6°C/43°F with a very light breeze so I just put a light jacket on over my pyjamas.

When I stepped out of the RV, it was actually the Milky Way that caught my attention – it was stunning. Here’s a look at it right at 04:00, with a bit of aurora in the corner. This was shot at ISO 2500 with a 30-second exposure.

A selfie shot at 04:03 – ISO 1250 @ 30 seconds.

Another Milky Way and aurora, this one shot at ISO 6400 and 30 seconds.

The next photo shows the aurora at its best this morning, at 04:13 – ISO 1250 @ 30 seconds.

The next photo was shot back at our campsite, showing the RV at 04:40.

A final Milky Way shot at 04:43 before going back to bed – ISO 6400 @ 30 seconds.

September 8th

The next morning, my first look outside was just before 03:00, and pretty much the whole sky was lit up! I was quickly back down to the beach, and the first photo was shot at 03:02 – ISO 1250 @ 30 seconds.

The amount of motion in the aurora made 30-second exposures too long, so the next one was shot at 15 seconds.

To the southwest, a different type of aurora was happening. I think this was the first time I had seen both the usual forms as well as a vaporous, very rapidly moving type. The first photo of it was shot at ISO 2000 and 10 seconds.

Back to the main display at 03:06, shot at ISO 2000 and 13 seconds.

Another selfie a minute later – ISO 2000 @ 13 seconds.

03:12

At 03:15, I thought the vertical ray in the lower centre of the next photo might develop into something more impressive, but it didn’t – ISO 2500 @ 13 seconds.

Another look at the vaporous aurora – ISO 2500 @ 13 seconds.

03:22 – ISO 1600 @ 20 seconds.

I went back into the motorhome, but read and did some writing instead of going to sleep. I must have had a premonition, because the sky erupted a little over an hour later while I was sitting there. The next photo was shot right outside the RV at 04:50 – ISO 1250 @ 15 seconds.

Four minutes later there was a bit of the much-sought-after red in the aurora – ISO 1600 @ 20 seconds.

04:55 – I was shooting constantly now as the aurora changed shape and form rapidly.

04:56 – ISO 1600 @ 13 seconds, with a bit of a shooting star caught.

By 04:59 the display was so bright and fast-moving I was shooting at ISO 1600 and 8 seconds. I was pretty blown away by what was happening, given the forecast.

Two minutes later I was back shooting on the beach, as the display was lower in the sky – ISO 1600 @ 6 seconds.

05:02 – ISO 1600 @ 13 seconds.

05:04 – ISO 1000 @ 20 seconds.

A selfie at 05:06 – ISO 1000 @ 15 seconds.

At 05:12 the aurora had spread to the east enough that I was able to shoot right up the lake, though the 10mm lens makes the snowy peaks looks much further away than they actually are – ISO 1000 @ 30 seconds.

At 05:26 the first light of dawn was starting to wash out the aurora.

The final shot of this morning was shot 2 minutes later, looking towards the spot where the sun would rise at about 07:40.

September 9th

The next 2 mornings were no big deal, but the fact that there was anything to photograph at all was significant. The only photo I’ll post from September 9th was shot at 04:25 – ISO 1250 @ 25 seconds.

With some clouds and very strong winds on September 10th, getting any photos was a challenge, but this is what it looked like at 04:09 – ISO 6400 @ 30 seconds.

And that was the end of aurora shooting – the weather shut down and we left for home a few hours later.