Skunked by the weather last night! Drove 250 miles, planning to head to Donnelley Dome to get out from under the snow and clouds that were plaguing the interior, and we still couldn’t escape the clouds or flurries. According to radar reports and anticipated cloud cover, we thought this was going to be the best way to try to get some great photos of an amazing aurora storm that was happening above the cloud cover.
We stopped for a few quick photos at a pullout that overlooks the Tanana River (before getting to Delta Junction) when we noticed the aurora was dancing behind these clouds. Considering all my camera settings were totally off and therefore my few photos are less than stellar and lacking in stars too, I’m not terribly unhappy that we didn’t get to see amazing aurora!
The further we drove, the more the snow coming down looked like we were traveling in the Millennium Falcon in light speed. Just as we would come out of a band of snow, we would hit another and by the time we hit the pipeline pullout just past the dome (which we couldn’t even see due to the flurries!), all we had was wet snow.
So we cursed the weather, turned around and I was home in bed by 2am, having succumbed to the slumber that beckoned me.
It’s apparent that it’s time for me to review my camera’s settings since my pics looked like everything was covered in some kind of nuclear green fog before I did any correction to them.
Overlooking Tanana River, aurora behind clouds. Aperture priority/30″, ISO 1600 (probably why it was too bright)
Overlooking Tanana River, aurora behind clouds. ORIGINAL FILE looking like a nuclear winter of green fog.
Massive aurora behind those clouds. Aperture priority/13″, ISO 800
Pipeline viewing point near Donnelley Dome. Bounce that flash!