The Northern Lights are something which is on many people’s bucketlist. Usually it means you have to plan for a winter holiday as this is your best bet to really see those magical lights dancing across the sky. But: You can be lucky: Lucky like us this summer up in Alaska. For three nights in a row we were able to see the aurora borealis on Alaska’s night sky.
Camping in Alaska’s largest National Park means there won’t be too much disturbing light from cities or towns and with a aurora forecast between 4 and 5 (on a scale between 0 and 9) we thought it was worth a try setting up a Northern Lights Night Watch Schedule… (all photo credits to Keith M)
As we were 18 people in total, it meant that everybody only had to wake up once at night and scan the night sky for aurora activity. If there was something to see, these guys would wake up the other tents. Dave’s and my turn was at 1.30 am in the morning. When we first glanced at the sky, we didn’t see much. First, I actually thought I saw just some bright, white clouds. Then we realised that those “clouds” were moving pretty fast across the sky… those were the Northern Lights!
Soon, we both stumbled through the dark night (not so sure what I would have done if I had come across a black bear) to wake everybody up. In all fairness: with your naked eye the lights were mostly white with some hints of green and purple. But with any half decent camera (you will need to expose for at least a few seconds with high ISO) we were able to get some fantastic shots – and thanks to Keith (a professional photografer on our trip) we even got a group shot of some of us in front of the Northern Lights. What an epic night and a great way to end our season in Alaska!