Nightscapes

Alone with the Stars

It was silent up there. Every rustle from the pine trees, every hoofbeat on the meadow, every chirp of the grasshopper were as loud as the crack of a bullet. But this silence let me focus on the beautiful night sky above me.

The sky glittered with the light of a million stars. The occasional meteor from the Perseid shower sped across this sparkling dome in a brilliant scintillating flash. And behind this, the bright band of the Milky Way arched across, a highway from earth to the heavens above.

Moments like these make me realize that we are but an insignificant mote in the vastness of space. And out here, in the PNW, such moments are rare to come by. I am glad I could be in wilderness on nights like these to enjoy its dazzling splendor.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

Skydance

It is rare in the lower 48 states of the USA  that one gets to shoot the aurora borealis. And even when it appears, it is not as bright as what you get to see near the Arctic (Alaska, Iceland, Norway etc). And long exposures, and timelapses of the long exposures are probably the best way to visualize the dance of the northern lights.
Here is one such from the recent auroras that appeared through March and April. I hope I get to see more of these next year.

Prosser

WA USA


Music: Bensound
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Pillars of Heaven

After the aurora storm last Month, I wasn't expecting to see another storm until end of the year. So when the aurora indices were picking up another storm earlier this week, I was certainly surprised. But PNW showed of its true spirit by hiding the entire state under clouds right that night. Thankfully, I spotted an opening in eastern Washington, a good 3+hrs from home.

I weighed my options on whether to make the long journey through the night, and whether the show would be worth sacrificing productivity on Monday. Thankfully, the fore-casted window in the clouds stayed for the most part, and the fore-casted aurora painted the sky with colors. This is one of the many frames I shot while doing a timelapse to capture the dance of the night sky.

Prosser
WA USA

Skydance Live

Northern lights, I realized, is best appreciated as a video. Because the borealis isn't a static fixture in the sky but a dance of light and colors. Closer to the poles, one can experience this dance in real-time, but in the PNW, only timelapses can capture the incredible beauty of the dance.

Here is one such dance. While I regret not spending more time to capture the lights due to the cold, I was glad I was at least able to capture this.

Quincy
WA USA

Skydance

With cloud cover predicted for most of Washington on that fateful night, I was not particularly hopeful in capturing the aurora. Despite the low probability, I drove through a treacherous winter storm hitting Snoqualmie pass and hunted around the central Washington for a dark place with clear opening to the north. I finally found a dark canal bank with a possible opening. And within moments of spreading out the tripod, the aurora showed its true colors, with pillars rising so high above me that even the vertical composition couldn't capture its full height. If it were any clearer, the camera would have been saturated with the auroral glow.

After that high, I was dreading the drive back. The winter storm over Snoqualmie pass had become even more intense, with a layer of sleet and ice covering miles of the highway. Lack of any traffic meant that there was no help around if I had a spinout. If not for that heightened alert level after the aurora, I would not have made it home safely. Hopefully this occurs again before the PNW settles into its summer.

Quincy
WA USA

Say Hi to Steve

It was one for the books. Seeing the aurora borealis in action helped fill a nostalgic hole left by a trip to Iceland six years ago. And I would have almost missed it since skies all over the Pacific Northwest was cloud. And if not for my gut instinct prompting me to just sacrifice sleep to go witness this, I most certainly would have.

As luck would have it, I also managed to see STEVE for the very first time. STEVE, which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, is different from a bog-standard aurora in that it is a thin ribbon of purplish-white light that forms further south of the northern lights. When I first saw this band of light dancing above me in the sky, I first mistook it for the aurora before realizing that the actual lights were showing up in the northern horizon. Here is one of the many captures of STEVE near a dark alley east of the Cascades.

Ellensburg
WA USA

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Alley in Moonlight

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Finally, in Ortigia, near the south of Sicily, we wandered through narrow alleys with ornate balconies adorned with tiny gardens. We cut through stately mansions and grand piazzas, and gobble up hot streetfood even if full from our afternoon meals. Such is a slow pace of life that we got to savor in Ortigia, a place we want to return back to sometime in the future.

Here is one such alley shining under the bright moonlight.

Ortigia
Sicily, Italy

Dolomiti in Moonlight

A whirlwind of a trip to Italy took me to 3 diverse destinations. But throughout the trip, there was one constant, a bright moon, that proved to be a focal point for various photos I took during the trip. Here in the Dolomiti, the near full moon rose to prominence over the jagged peaks at twilight.


Dolomiti
Alto Adige, Italy

Lights Out

One of the perks of living in the PNW, or so I thought, was that I would have easy access to see the northern lights. But lightshows like the one yesterday are few and far inbetween, and it is hard for the weather to cooperate as well. Thankfully, it cooperated yesterday and I snagged this. While not as impressive as my previous glimpses of the aurora in Iceland, it was a pretty sight at a place very close to home.

This scene shows the deep red pillars that appear when the intensity of the ionic storm becomes particularly strong.

Anacortes
WA USA