Pinch me! Am I dreaming? Because this is what dreams are made of! It was an unbelievable eight hours stretching from 8:00pm last night until 4:00am this morning! As I put together this blog post of my experience witnessing the Aurora Borealis, it's 5:45am and I still have not gone to bed! Bed time will have to wait until tonight!
Just after dinner, I began to watch the "My Aurora Forecast"' website. Conditions were looking favourable for a good opportunity to see the Northern Lights. As people were sharing photos of their sightings from Europe and then Eastern Canada, I hoped we would be as fortunate here in Calgary. I left home shortly before seven and drove to the parking lot for Nose Hill. I had a place in mind where I wanted to be up there and I wanted to get up there before it was pitch dark.
The sun just set as I hiked up the dirt trail to higher hills.
I arrived at my spot around 7:30 and meandered about here and there not venturing too far. This was the view as I looked to the northern sky. There were lots of clouds which is not a good thing but I hoped for the best.
To pass the time, I watched the clouds dance around the moon. I chatted with a few others who were heading further along the trail. I took photos with my big camera, my little camera and my iPhone. It was around 8:00pm when I began to feel cold so pulled out my down vest and while I was putting it on, I turned around and saw something in the sky I had never seen before. When what to my wandering eyes should appear!
The Aurora Borealis came to life!
All my Aurora photos were taken with my iPhone, which I just pointed and shooted! I needed to be still for three seconds while it captured the photo. Pinch me is this for real? Am I dreaming? I was speechless! I felt a lump in my throat and my lips quivered! My eyes watered! These are a few of the over one hundred special seconds in time that I captured in a half hour. At 8:30 the show stopped so I began to hike down the hill and back to my car, with the assistance of my head lamp.
When I got home, I downloaded my photos and picked out the ones I wanted to share. I moved them directly into the blog post so they would be ready for when I was ready to add my story. I made a warm beverage and sipped it while checking out what photos other locals had to share. I checked the "My Aurora Forecast" again and Calgary was in the red meaning the strongest. I looked out my back door and low and behold the Aurora Borealis was dancing with full force! I bundled up, grabbed my hot beverage and iPhone then sat out on my deck from roughly 1:00am until just before 4:00. The Northern Lights never stopped dancing! These are just a few of the dozens and dozens of sights that I captured.
This is the Aurora forecast at 3:30 this morning.
I went onto the Sunshine Ski Hill webcam and watched the live Aurora webcam.
I also took screen shots of two of the webcams.
This is a screen shot of a very small part of my photo album.
As I finish writing my story, after looking at all my photos many times, I still wonder is this all a dream! This is the Thanksgiving long weekend and I have so much to be thankful for!