Photo of the Day - May 9, 2013
Martin Guth from Colorado Springs, Colorado
A ghostly aurora - The photographer who took this unusual shot reports, “I went to Alaska back in March, and have a few aurora photos taken from a site 32 miles north of Fairbanks. The night of March 12 was forecast to be a "1" on the Boulder K index scale, and indeed it was for many hours as I froze in the dark waiting for something to happen. And just before dawn, it sure did. It went from a single “quiet arc” state to a split arc, then it fairly rapidly blew up into a horizon-to-horizon event. After covering most of the sky, it then did the most amazing thing: nothing. It just sat there, about as frozen as I was, taking the better part of an hour to slowly fade out while still maintaining most of the features. This aurora produced shapes and ragged edges that I have never seen before. I’ve seen thousands of aurora photos, but none quite looked like this.” (Nikon D3s DSLR, 14mm lens at f/2.8, ISO 4000, 4-second exposure, taken March 12, 2013, at 4:36 A.M. Alaska time)
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