bear-bound by ben: Pictures of the Aurora

There were a few days in February that had some increased sun activity. I drove over to a friends apartment one night and when I got there everyone was out in the parking lot. After I parked I realized they were all looking off into the sky and very faintly you could see some green haze above the trees. We were in a parking lot with streetlamps on a brightly lit campus so to be honest my first Aurora sighting wasn't really that great. But later that night once I got away from campus they were much brighter.

About a week after that the skies were clear again and we decided to drive up Murphy's dome around midnight. By the time we got up there the lights were starting to fade but I had borrowed a friend's tripod and brought my camera so I decided to try and get some pictures. I had never photographed aurora before but my first exposure was the best one I took. After that I think it was a combination of the lights fading and my playing with different exposure times and I never got anything better. Hopefully eventually I'll get another shot.