The Northern Lights in Alaska and a few Other Things

The northern lights may be appreciated by most of us except perhaps by those who live directly underneath their viewing area. I planned this trip in 2016 after realizing that my old camera was not good enough to capture most of the pictures of the northern lights, but I planned this to be around the time when a solar maximum was expected. These are roughly 11-year cycles that produce more sunspots, which in turn also send more solar particles towards the Earth, which cause the northern lights as they interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. The first nice views as I was flying from Dallas to Anchorage were near Glacier National Park in Montana, followed by the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. It was mostly cloudy afterwards until we landed in Anchorage:

On the second leg of the flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks I was able to see decent northern lights for the first time in nine years, (I saw some faint ones while flying near Iceland last year):

It had been a long day and the night was cloudy, so I went straight to bed when I arrived. The plan for the rest of the trip was to take frequent naps during the day in order to be awake and alert at night to capture the northern lights. The only problem was that there is not really much to do in Fairbanks during the day. The only reason why I would return is to see the World Championship Ice Sculptures around mid-March, which usually coincides with Spring Break, which is what I did the second night right before my first northern light tour:

There were some cirrus clouds and the northern lights were not that great, but there was something. The first picture was taken by the tour guide, while the last two were taken by me. I edited all three of them:

On the second day I waited for temperatures tu rise before leaving the hotel, as thermometers read near -17°C (about 2°F) at 2:00 AM second night, I say this because temperature fluctuated several degrees in different parts of Fairbanks. Higher areas outside the city were in the mid to low 20s (about -5°C all three nights that I took a tour) due to their famous temperature inversion. By 2:00 PM or so temperatures rose to near freezing on most days. I had already taken a tour of the city nine years ago, and the only places that I visited for a second time were the Morris Thompson Visitor Center, the Museum of the North, and Pioneer Park. These are pictures from central Fairbanks (were some ice museums were unexpectedly closed), as well as the Museum of the North, and Pioneer Park:

I went to Chena Hot Springs a few hours later (the third night), just in case those supposedly healing waters were actually good for my elbow. They were not, but the water was relaxing. A few of the ice sculptures in their museum were damaged and never fully restored:

There was not that much luck with the northern lights that night, in fact, hardly any, but the sky was beautiful. The best starlit sky that I've seen has been in or near Chena Hot Springs:

These are the pictures from the fourth night, when I took my third and final tour. This was operated by the same guys who had taken me to the same spot two nights ago, but under a different tour company. Most of these pictures were taken by them, some others were taken with my Pixel phone, but all of them were edited by me:

I spent the last day trying to find different groceries and comparing prices (not much else to do) after visiting an old car museum. Fred Meyer is perhaps the largest or one of the largest grocery stores that I've visited, as they seem to have a larger selection of clothes and furniture than Walmart. I was surprised to see a decent selection of international foods (outside the US and Mexico). Walmart, which is also nearby does have prices that could be around 30% higher than in the lower 48 states. Eating lunch or dinner at Costco might save you some money, as their prices seem to be the same as the rest of the US, including their $9.95 large pizza. There is also a small Catholic church with regular Saturday vigil and Sunday service:

The last night I had Pioneer Park for myself. Some moderate northern light activity was seen for a little while. While the lights were perhaps just as visible inside the city than the outside, the picture quality of the night sky was a little lower, especially when pointing and shooting directly at the night sky:

After editing pictures almost nonstop since October, it is time to take a break. While this may be one of the best locations in the world to see the northern lights, I might consider other places to visit in case I ever decide to see them again, as I need to find something else to do during the day. Only time will tell.