Painted Sky !

Painted Sky !, originally uploaded by David Cartier.

Painted Sky !

" For a moment of night, we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in it's stream of stars -- pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time "
--------- The Naturalist, Henry Beston, 1928.
Fairly breathtaking Aurora seen this morning ( March 13) at 3 AM along the shore of Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, looking north from near Sheep Mountain.
Last Photo ever taken by my 40 yr. old Fujica ST705.... Advance lever snapped in the minus 30 cold.... Oh, Well.. At least it went out in a blaze of glory! Though they look contiguous, Red auroral light occurs much higher up, around 200 miles up, whereas the more typically seen Green tends to occur between 40 and 80 miles up.
This was only 15 seconds......these colors would have been more vivid with a longer exposure but the lights were moving so fast I didn't want the whole sky to become a blur of light .... Anyway , I like this ... to me, it looks more like a painting than a photograph.
28mm lens, Fujifilm Natura 1600 (photo straight from Walmart , no enhancement)

Uploaded by David Cartier on 14 Mar '07, 2.20am AST.