This was a nice surprise – there’s a spot I’ve had in mind for Milky Way season, and recently I was in the area and the night was clear so I went to investigate.

Things started out innocently enough – clear skies through the blue hour and a nice Milky Way filling in the sky as I composed a shot that included the curve of a nice rocky cliff face. I also did a little bit of light painting on the rocky overhang too.

But as the minutes ticked by, I thought my eyes might be playing tricks on me as it seemed some pink was appearing in the image. The aurora numbers were not good (Bz barely hitting -5) but as darkness took over, the pink intensified and low and behold – a beautiful little aurora appeared along with the Milky Way within the composition I had chosen.

The display didn’t last long at all – it was short but very sweet indeed 🙂