Aurora sighting August 7, 2006

[auroradude]

Finally!
I just had my first sighting of the aurora season tonight. The weather has been pretty cloudy and rainy most of the summer but this weekend cleared up nicely and I spotted aurora by 1:00 a.m. local time. It filled the sky for a while to within 30 degrees of the southern horizon. After fading out for a while it looked like it was trying to make a comeback but we ran out of darkness on this short night. I photographed for almost three hours and will hope for a couple nice ones out of about 50 shots that were took.
I saw several Perseid meteors as well. The moon rose for a while but was so low in the south that it did not interfere much although there was plenty of twilight on the northern horizon still....exciting!

[yutenite]

I had thought it was too bright to see aurora in Alaska, but reading your post today got me excited.  After just over two years in Alaska, I will be moving out of state in just over a week, and thought my viewing of Alaskan aurora had all but ended. 

About 40 minutes ago(midnight local time), while doing my nightly looking for noctilucent clouds(of which I spotted a very small amount of, close to the northern horizon) some movement caught my eye above.  When I tried to look at it, I couldn't find it.  So I gave the cones a break and let the rods of my eyes work for me by trying to catch it out of the corner of my eye.  Sure enough, I soon spotted the faintest of aurora dancing overhead from my apartment in Anchorage.

Very faint display.  I'm debating whether or not to go out tonight, especially after the long day I had.  I took a couple pictures, will check them out later.

Anyway, it was very nice to at least see something.  Hope some nice aurora come to Wisconsin this winter, which is where I will be.

~Scott