Fairbanksiness (is not a word)

[laylalawlor]

The aurora has been absolutely gorgeous the last few nights. Well, not last night, because there were clouds (and this morning it was snowing, aargh). But prior to that, it's been simply staggering -- some of the most impressive displays that I've ever seen. It was so bright on Monday night that it was actually casting light, making the ground

Comments

[xparrot]

oh man, jealous! I've never seen the aurora, never lived far enough north for it to be a regular thing - I've seen pictures, but it's hard for me to believe that it really looks like that...one of these days...!

[laylalawlor]

Like I said to Orion while we were watching the lightshow, it's such an improbable thing -- it just doesn't look real! Although I guess that if it happened every night, we'd probably get used to it; sunsets are pretty, but we don't rush out to see them every time.

It's not impossible that you might see one; sometimes they show up pretty far south. My sister saw one when she was living in southeastern Washington (Pullman) a few years ago.

[pamola]

One of my flickr contacts is in Fairbanks and posts some of the most amazing aurora pictures. I'm envious, the best I've seen was in Maine a barely a glow on the horizon.

[laylalawlor]

Oh, those are gorgeous! Looking at the date, that must be the same display that we were watching, or at least the same general timeframe. :D I saw some pink, but not as much color as they were able to photograph -- that's pretty awesome. :)

[harmonyak]

In 20 years in AK, I never saw a very cool aurora. But I think you'd have to actually go outside and brave the cold for that. I tended to do my stargazing and aurora-gazing in 30-second bursts.

[laylalawlor]

Well, also, Fairbanks is more directly under the aurora belt than where we were -- it's funny how much difference 300 miles makes. I see a lot more auroras here, and bigger and brighter ones, than we ever did at home; it really blew me away my first semester of college, because I had night classes and I would see them almost every night walking back to the dorm. I wasn't used to that; at home we'd get them maybe a few times a winter.

[harmonyak]

Well, that we SAW. In all fairness it's possible that Alexander Creek had a fabulous aurora display every single night at 4am whenever it was 30 below. For some reason I usually wasn't outside then... ;)

Did you know I actually saw northern lights twice in Washington (the state)? They were very, VERY faint, but they were red, which is the only time I've seen red ones except possibly one time when I was in Fairbanks.

[laylalawlor]

Well, that we SAW. In all fairness it's possible that Alexander Creek had a fabulous aurora display every single night at 4am whenever it was 30 below.

On the two nights per winter that it actually *was* 30 below ... *g*

It's physics, though. The major belt of the aurora is much closer to Fairbanks -- actually it's north of us, and moving north(east) all the time, so it's likely that in a few decades we won't see the aurora all that much either. I'm trying to soak it up while I can!

I did remember you'd seen the aurora there! (I think I even mentioned it in one of the other comments. :D) I thought it was only the once, though.

[humanplacebo]

Chris points out this probably by the same poster.

[laylalawlor]

It's actually hard to believe Craigslist doesn't get that sort of thing more often ...

[24thecomicstrip]

At least the space heate--er, time machine comes with a manual.