It's Starting

Three hours of nothing but the most perfect data, so you had to know this was coming.
And then we drove home, a little bit in disbelief, laughing lightly to ourselves.

Nights Without Worries

Widespread cirrus cloud on moonlit nights is not my favourite thing in the world. But tonight there was definitely no mistaking cirrus cloud for the aurora. And halfway through the night, it had all dissipated anyway - the bad guy, not the good lady, of course.

Hurry Up and Wait

I could have enjoyed that 40% illuminated setting moon through the binoculars all night. Good thing. Along with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, and the Pleiades among others. There was certainly time for them all, because our mysterious lady certainly wasn't in a hurry this evening. But when she did come out, she again ran across the sky like you can only believe once you've seen it. 

The Culmination of Satellite Imagery, Intuition, and Elation for the Chase

Pulling my neck warmer over my face and getting my toque from the closet, I just had that feeling. Driving away from Yellowknife in a snowstorm, 145 kilometres straight out into the middle of nowhere, it felt as much as a certainty travelling at the speed of light (only kidding, that's just how it looked with the snow blowing into the high beams) we would eventually surface on the clear side of the cloud bank. And I honestly don't know if that, or watching pinks, purples and greens run across the sky overhead was more the thrill for me. 
If it wasn't for getting back home at 4am, these are the nights that are hard to follow up with sleep. 

Split Second Decisions

A literal last second decision to veer off to the northeast instead of the northwest brought that obligatory 'I hope this is the right decision' sinking feeling to my stomach earlier tonight. 

As it turns out, after a half hour of uncertainty, it was. ...Without, of course, knowing exactly how the west would have turned out. But a complete clearing of some scattered cloud just as lady aurora danced over our heads left little doubt and only a feeling of being very lucky.