February 1, 2016 Auroras
Palisade, MN
The magnetic field component Bz was south in the late day, and the skies were mostly clear, so I held out hope for seeing auroras. However, the clouds slid in from the northwest just after sunset, leaving me with a drive if I wanted to photograph anything. I headed south on U.S. 169 out of town, thinking I could drive just south of Hill City to escape the cloud cover.
I needed to go a little farther to Highway 210 to get just far enough south that the auroras barely glowed above the cloud deck. I had work to do, and if I continued, the clouds would chase me ever farther from home, so I decided to take a couple quick shots from the nearest lake before heading home.
There was a lot of traffic in this area, which suprised me quite a bit. Part of that may have been due to the fact that it was mid-winter, and with earlier darkness, there were still a lot of people out and about while I was shooting. Whatever the case, I was having a hard time finding a quiet place to shoot. I drove north on the county road heading to Palisade, but cars followed me. Then, I saw a couple public access boat ramps nearby, so I picked the closest one and drove in. Lo and behold, the only car that was behind me happened to be headed for that same road. Gosh! I turned around and drove back to the county road and snapped a quick picture, but the street light there was illuminated the foreground too brightly, so I headed back in. The lake access looked pretty tightly nestled among a lot of cabins and houses, so I felt it would be difficult to nestle into it without being noticed, even with a quiet electric car. One gets that feeling when driving around in an area with a lot of farms like this one. Farmers are always watching an area within a two mile radius, ready to intercept anybody who stops for a second rather than just driving quickly through.
Indeed, not 30 seconds after I had driven in, and as I pulled my camera equipment from the car, one of the local residents drove his pickup into the ramp behind me and inquired what I was up to. I told him, and he said "no problem". I walked onto the lake and took a few shots, but the clouds were a little closer, and the best shot ended up being the one I took from the county road.
 |
|---|
| This image shows a brightly illuminated foreground, a cloud deck in the distance, city lights illuminating the underside of the cloud deck (barely above the trees), and the dim, upper reaches of the auroras poking up above the cloud deck. |