In the beginning of the evening the northern lights could be seen as a green haze in the north, but as the aurora oval moved southwards during the night, so did the northern lights and around midnight they could be seen north, south, west and east - a magic sight.

Photo details: Nikon D3, Nikkor 20mm f/2.8, ISO 800, various exposure times.

The whole evening we measured strong magnetic and earth current variations in our instrument room at the Polar Light Center. In the chart recording, red is magnetic declination and blue is earth ground current. Time is in UTC. After 21.00 the aurora were strong and pulsating through the clouds.

At long last the northern lights have returned to our Arctic skies. After what seemed like weeks of cloudy nights the skies opened up last night to showcase the dance of the northern lights. At first I snapped a few images from behind my house and then as luck would have it a student of mine drove me by snow machine to the beach just in time to see the aurora explode over the Pangnirtung Fjord. The season of the arctic lights has began again!

Photo details: Nikon D700, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at both 800 and 2000 ASA (between 8-12 secs).

It was the first time, this winter, I was out. At first it seemed to be a slow Aurora, but it picked up, and started dancing around the sky about an hour, before slowing down and disappearing.

Photo details: Canon EOS 5D, 16-35L, at 16 mm, F4, Iso 800, 15s.