Popping back in to share some Alaska pics! DH and I have lived up here for 7 years now, though I've had extended family here since the late 40s
I picked out some of my favorite summer pics, but one of my most favorite parts about living up here is best photographed in the other months when the skies are dark enough to see...
(whoops...apparently I should've adjusted the opacity on or turned off my watermark on the pictures first)
The first pic is from the hillside, up at a popular lookout area and hiking destination called Flattop Mountain. This pic is looking the other way at flattop (the mountain on the right that has a rather flat top) and the moon that evening:
The second, third, and last photos are all from my back deck (two different shows: 2 & 3 were the same night, but 5 was a couple of years later) and the 4th picture is from Point Woronzof, another popular lookout area that sits at the bottom of one of the airport runways - the white & red dotted line is a plane that had just taken off
Seeing the Northern Lights is a really cool experience! I've only witnessed a handful of shows since moving up here, the conditions have to be just right and getting them all lined up at the same time isn't easy! First auroral activity is a must, but then it has to be dark enough (you may have seen in the news recently there was a really strong aurora seen well into the lower 48, it would've been an amazing show up here if it wasn't the week of our longest days of the year!) and clear or mostly clear skies and even the phase of the moon can make a difference - a bright full moon can make them harder to see too. Often it seems like the strongest shows are in the summer, the daytime, or when it's thick cloud cover. Even when the conditions all line up, seeing the northern lights involves a fair amount of patience. They come and go and the data doesn't always match what is actually going on in the sky. I've spent a few hours at most out looking for them, but there are many that go chasing all night. In person they aren't quite as bright & vivid as pictures since cameras can expose the scene longer than the human eye, but still photos don't capture the dancing they do!
More pics to come soon! I also have a couple more posts for my Disneyland TR to add as well!