As I wrote in my last entry, for Day 25, the northern lights were visible shortly after the sun set today, much earlier than other nights I've seen them when the peak is around 2-4am.  It was just after midnight when we could see the trails of green haze across the sky, diffuse auroras.  At 1pm they solidified into ribbons and I started setting up my camera and tripod.  I got a few shots in before the sky exploded with light.  The auroras were so intense I couldn't decide which way to try to photograph them, and finally decided I should give up and just enjoy them for a bit.  It was incredible.  Overhead and filling much of the sky was an almost solid, bright green that lit up the night.  Between this and the horizon were endless ribbons in a rainbow of colors, green, purples, blues, pinks.  I wish I could have gotten video.  After this display calmed down, I finished finding a good direction for some shots, settling on trying to get the cabins in the frame.

The rest of the night, there were occasional bright lateral ribbons that developed out of the vertical hazy curtains of green.  The vertical streaks of light fade and grow, at times so quickly that the light is dancing in lines.  As the night went on, the whole sky was a diffuse green haze.  Late, after 3am, I decided to call it a night and went back to my camera.  The sky was so full of these streaks of haze that I decided to try a couple photos to see if they would turn out.  Then I looked up overhead and immediately had chills.  Overhead, the perspective was different and instead of seeing the streaks from the side, I was looking up into the vertical streaks.  It looked like they were coming from infinity and reaching down all around me.  It was very disorienting and very, very cool.

Since many have been asking me to explain what causes the phenomenon of the auroras, here's a link to a site that does so in a simple way, for those who don't know or remember learning in science class:   http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html

Some of the first stronger ribbons of light, over the Tukrok River.

Sometimes the ribbons stay stretched out, sometimes the swirl back in on themselves, giving the look of curtains fluttering overhead.

With the Anigaaq cabins.

I love how this picked up on the purples in the sky, and that these lined up with the little chimney pipe.  This place is magical, but maybe not quite that magical.

In this one you can kind of make out the vertical lines of light.  In life, they are clear and distinct as they dance around.

Here you can see the purples, and the vertical lines of light that solidify at the bottom.  I think you have to be there to see how much it looks like curtains.

Across the river the light got intense and focused.

The green haze that continued through the night.

What photos can't capture is how the lights can start at one horizon and continue overhead all the way to the other horizon.  It's awesome and makes you feel tiny.

This was a very strange shape.  Would have been interesting to see how the edges continued past the horizon.

The haze became very streaky, with areas where the stars and sky could peak through.

Looking the other direction, just after the last photo.

Looking up overhead.  This is what it looked like, but imagine seeing this filling the sky above you, seeming to stretch down on all sides.

Another overhead shot.  So amazed that these turned out at all.