Astronomical twilight (the darkest it gets this time of year) started at 12:06 early this morning.  Since it was a clear night I had set my alarm for 12:20 am.  I wasn’t expecting much as the forecast kp index was only a 3.  To my surprise,  there was some color in the sky, dramatically obvious when I took a photo out of the bedroom window.  I showed C and told him I was going outside.   He proposed we drive into Denali NP, and thank goodness I agreed.  The next 3 hours were spectacular!

In the below series of photos, watch the lower line of the green horseshoe extend dramatically in just one minute. I wish our videos turned out, but they don’t capture the magic.

Once again the northern lights were visible all around and overhead, not only to the north.  The colors appeared faded near the very bright moon.  It was about 25F and clear, with little wind.  We saw a white snowshoe hare and heard an owl calling.

The above photo isn’t great, but I managed to capture the nearly full moon, spots of Northern Lights, and Denali itself at 2 am (Denali is the very faint mountain in the center, many miles away).  At the below link are some photos from a daylight trip into the park a year ago,  https://roaming-nature.com/2023/04/25/snow-covered-mountains/

Astronomical Twilight ended at 3:07 am, turning to Nautical Twilight as we were making our way out of the park.  We didn’t see much on the way home.  As I settled into bed, I glanced out the window and the Aurora was back! Five more photos then I went to sleep.

FYI, a brief explanation of twilight is that in order of light to dark:  daylight, civil twilight, nautical twilight, astronomical twilight, night.  Then, the order reserves back to daylight. Towards the poles, the various phases can be lengthy and can change rapidly from day to day.   Towards the equator, twilight is shorter, and the phases are far less variable. For more information on different levels of twilight,  daylight and night in Alaska, see my various 2023 posts such as https://roaming-nature.com/2023/05/03/twilight-ii-week-7-in-healy/ and the related posts as the bottom of that page.  Also see posts on Utquiagvik (above the Arctic Circle), especially https://roaming-nature.com/2023/06/22/utqiagvik-part-3-midnight-sun/