The night skies this autumn, have not been very forgiving when it comes to showing her beautiful limitless self. Shrouded in clouds, with strong transitional winds, stars have been barely visible, let alone Aurora. This can make chasing our lovely lights a struggle, and greatly frustrating at times when you know the odds are very high, and you are seeing the many amazing photos from around the world pouring into the photo groups.

I think those struggles, more often than not, help us appreciate the moments we do get to have, just a little bit more than normal. It reminds us that patience is indeed, a virtue, and sometimes that makes the reward taste just that little bit sweeter.

On the eve of October 01 the skies finally cleared, and to my luck, the aurora did come out and in a way I often do not see it here.

I was doing my nightly check around 12:00am, the time when I decide I should go to bed or not, and weigh out my odds of whether setting up the camera for a timelapse is worthwhile, and low and behold, I noticed a swift movement of light. I bundled up in a warm coat, put a couple batteries in my pocket and outside I went to see what was happening.

The skies were bright, there were spires of aurora dancing about behind the tree line facing the lake, a place, I more than often, never see them. No matter what direction I pointed the camera, a green haze could be seen, some areas with shapes, others not. I believe this is caused by the slight fogginess that was present. To the eye the colour was but a tint, but the brightness was brilliant and white. The shapes moved fast in some areas, in other areas it remained fairly static. I fine tuned my settings and decided I would take a wander down to the dock to see what things looked like from down there.

To my great pleasure, the aurora was over the lake, far further than it normally was, usually it is more over the trees, but this time it was quite aways out past them, reflections bright and the lake like a mirror. I sat and watched for quite sometime, until it hit a certain point of brightness, then I wandered into the lake, and setup the camera and began to capture some images. Later when I began to grow quite weary, I set it up for a timelapse (you can watch it on my instagram or YouTube).

It had been quite awhile since I had just sat down under the stars to watch the aurora, to simply enjoy it, and the shot that I came out with from that time, makes me very happy. It felt good to finally capture one of the classic reflection shots over Watson Lake with so many different tones and beautiful variations of light.

The chase continues on, with just a little more patience

Charun Stone
Naturally Charun

Photographic prints, canvases, and metal prints of Yukon Aurora, including the one above, are available here in my Aurora gallery