2025 MARCH 5-9 ALASKA AURORA EXPEDITION#30 RESULTS

by Paul D. Maley

Pat Hillmeyer photo taken with an Iphone 15 Pro Max, hand-held and 10 second exposure on March 9, 2025. It was part of a display seen a few hours before we departed the lodge for the Fairbanks airport.

This was our 30th Northern Lights expedition and this time it looked as though we would be weathered out. Constant cloud and snow flurries were notable each day except for the morning of departure when around 330am the sky cleared and we ended up with a very nice display of the aurora.

MARCH 8 EVENING

Walking outside just after dinner on the 4th and final night of our trip I could see faint patches of the Lights that would appear for a minute or two, then vanish, and reappear again near the zenith as the sky was socked in. Here is one photo I obtained showing how difficult it was to see and how unimpressive it was on the evening of March 8.

March 8 photo at 7:55pm by Paul D. Maley with a Samsung S24 phone

Around 9pm on March 8 I watched two aurora cams. The newest one at Toolik Lake showed clear skies at this far north Alaska site and the activity there was spectacular while we were overcast. Here are some of those images that led me to believe we might have a continuation at our location if clouds cleared.

9:04pm

9:05pm

9:15pm

9:17pm

9:19pm

You can see the very fast changing shapes and positions over short periods of time. This odd appearance was caused not by the typical coronal mass ejections coming from the Sun but from charged particles inside transition regions between slow and faster moving streams of solar wind; they were not derived from explosions on the Sun.

MARCH 9 MORNING

The forecasts that we used to get an understanding of when the clouds might part were a little ambiguous with indications that after 3 overcast nights that the last one would clear around midnight or 1am, while another indicator showed clearing around 3am. Breakfast was scheduled for 8 am and departure at 9 am so our margin was quite narrow. Morning twilight engaged around 6am. I walked out at 2:24am and saw that things were looking promising and went down to the aurora cabin. As I watched, the sky became clear and oddly, I could see aurora developing only in the southeast sky. This is contrary to most nights when they only develop in the northern hemisphere of the local sky. I immediately hit the aurora alarm button to notify our group. As time passed the aurora became better and better. Temperature was around 17 deg F.

This was our last night in Alaska and just as we thought that we would possibly never see any Northern Lights this time, this all changed in a heartbeat.

Lynn Palmer is amazed by the Lights as they start to build in the southern hemisphere of the lodge sky.

Patricia Beach photo. 3:45am image, iPhone 15 pro set with 10s timing, f1.78, Selfie stick tripod.

Patricia Beach photo. 4:25am image, iPhone 15 pro set with 10s timing, f1.78, hand held.

Patricia Beach photo. 4:55am image, iPhone 15 pro set with 10s timing f1.78 hand held.

Michelle Hillmeyer with Iphone 15 Pro Max and 10 second exposure

The above 2 photos are from Pat Hillmeyer.

3:38am Photo by Bernie Stallmeyer, Iphone 14 Pro, hand held, 24mm, ISO12,500, 12 seconds.

3:40am Photo by Bernie Stallmeyer, Iphone 14 Pro, hand held, 24mm, ISO6,400, 1 second.

3:54am Brian Siegel photo. Nikon Z7, 20mm, f/3.2, 2.5 secs, ISO3200

3:54am Brian Siegel photo. Nikon Z7, 20mm, f/3.2, 3 secs, ISO3200

Here follows some of the images I captured in time order.

My first image at 2:52am with camera pointed east as activity began to the right in the southeast. D3100, ISO1600, 6 second exposure, f/3.5 lens

2:57am as aurora appear in the southeast and south. Lights of Fairbanks off of cloud are in the southwest (right side) of photo.

2:58am the Moon is seen as the white blob on the right side of the screen within cloud. Notice how the aurora structure has changed.

3:00am

3:04am

3:13am

3:17am

As the activity slowed down the sky descended into a series of patches, faint but constantly popping up and moving around. This was a very different kind of aurora from a high activity display than we have seen in the past. Again, most activity gave the impression of coming from the southeast.

My last image at 4:54am as auroras were still present but weakened 154 photos later.

Here is the aurora oval assessment at 5:30am as we were winding down.

MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS

Part of the herd at Running Reindeer Ranch. Photo by Patricia Beach.

Reindeer Ranch area. Photo by Michelle Hillmeyer.

Home-made quilts available at the lodge

Trans-Alaska pipeline. Michelle Hillmeyer photo.

Snow fell each day of this trip adding to previous totals. The above is a view out the sliding glass door of all ground floor rooms.

On the afternoon of March 6 a unique “X transition” was to occur on the Moon during the afternoon at our location. I obtained a 6-inch Dobsonian mounted reflector (above) from the lodge owner where I hoped the sky would cooperate in letting us see the appearance of an X shape as sunlight crossed the Moon’s terminator illuminating a section of lunar landscape. However, the sky proved too bright to allow craters to even be recognized, and clouds quickly closed over that part of the sky.

Wall display showing awards and a bear skin all of which are related to the lodge history.

Remains of a bison dug up in the area that lived on the order of 50,000 years ago in the area near the lodge.

An Iditarod 2025 poster raffled off. We gave away 6 of these in commemoration of this unique event. Lisa Siegel photo.

Lisa Siegel was one of the winners of the raffled posters. Paul D. Maley photo.

Ice sculpture image#1 by Bernie Stallmeyer

Closeup of ice sculpture. Michelle Hillmeyer photo.

Ice sculpture image#2 by Bernie Stallmeyer

Chena Hot Springs. Michelle Hillmeyer photo.

Paul giving an aurora activity briefing. Lynn Palmer photo.

Paul using a hair dryer to blow the moisture off his camera lens after time spent outside.