The last shot I took after a long night of avoiding the clouds. I was able to capture my last glimpse of both the milky way and northern lights before the clouds blocked my view. I used the lights from a passing vehicle to paint my foreground with a quick splash of light. It was 2am. The temperature was 2 degrees. I had a long drive to get back home.
Predictions were pretty good for a big aurora storm for most of this week. The auroras clearly didn't get the memo. I spent two days chasing the northern lights. From my home in South Anchorage I drove 65 miles to Hatcher Pass on Wednesday. No lights. On Thursday night I drove north 219 miles to Cantwell. The reason being that I was trying to outrun cloud cover moving in from the south. Result very minimal aurora activity. I did manage to get this shot before the lights faded away and the clouds moved in. I like this shot because the edge of the clouds had just reached my location. High thin clouds creates a cool halo effect around some of the larger stars. Really making the big dipper really stand out.
Denali momentarily came out from behind the cloud cover. Just in time for me to capture all three together.
