There's an amazing website that I have grown to know and love in my time in Alaska so far:
http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/ This is where you can get all the information you could ever want about the auroral projections in your area; unfortunately in Juneau, this doesn't generally do you much good because it's usually overcast. However, last Wednesday the rating was at a 4.5, which is basically a guaranteed sighting, there was a fairly new moon, and not a cloud to be seen in the sky. We drove out Egan towards the glacier, as once we got past the annoyingly bright roadside lights, you could clearly see the outlines of the mountains against the night sky. "This isn't the East Coast" my thoughtful driver helpfully pointed out. "Any light you can see behind those mountains is coming from a natural source, not some far off city, and the moon is currently behind us not the mountains." Upon closer look, there was in fact a green tint to the lighting at the mountain's edges.
As we walked out on the glacier, the green lights grew even stronger. Here's a really poor representation:
As we stood and watched, the green lights grew stronger and more noticeable, with a distinct half-circle band almost directly overhead.
They waved back and forth like fast-moving clouds, with a couple vertical strips every once in a while.
After standing out on the lake for almost an hour, we decided that they were fading and it was time to go home. Surprisingly, once we got back downtown, the aurora grew even stronger. This time there were loops of greens, reds and purples moving back and forth above us, flickering and moving about. Of course, my standard for comparison was the Northern Lights in Balto, so I guess they did a pretty good job representing them in cartoon form.
Cross that one off the AK bucket list!!
