The Night Sky
Read More
“All Alone with the Aurora” - Montana
Total trip time: 11 hours, from 5pm - 4am.
Mileage: 350
Deer avoided while driving: over 12
Seeing the Northern Lights in Central Montana the other night: Priceless??
The question marks on "priceless" are due to the fact that Whitney and I technically didn't see the Northern Lights the other night.
With both smoke from nearby fires and storm clouds on the horizon, occasional lightning in the sky, and a half-moon that rose at 12:45am and stayed hidden behind clouds for a while, we simply couldn't see the Northern Lights with the naked eye.
But my camera was able to!
Finally at 2am the clouds and smoke moved far enough away and I had just a few minutes to photograph when these light rays were at their most intense, appearing just below the Big Dipper. I couldn't see them, but it was exciting waiting for each 25 second exposure to finish to find out what the camera was able to see.
Soon after this photo was taken, the moon started appearing through the smoke and clouds, bright orange from the smoke, and made the sky too bright for even the camera to see the Northern Lights. I stayed a little while longer taking photos of this old deserted house in the moonlight between Ringling and Wilsall on RT 89 in Central Montana, then headed home.
Milky WayMontanaaurora borealisnight skynorthern lightsold deserted housestars
