Northern Lights at Elk Island

My plans for the weekend were:

Friday - drive to Edmonton, stay with my sister and her family

Saturday - spend the day in Edmonton, have Easter/birthday supper at my sister's house (date and time chosen because of three different guests having dogs on certain feeding schedules).

Sunday - spend most of the day in Edmonton because it was my sister's birthday, drive back to Calgary.

Monday - chill out.

I wanted to drive because I'm feeling adventurous these days and am tired of taking the bus. Also, there was the strong possibility of Northern Lights, and Elk Island National Park is by Edmonton. It's renowned among the Alberta Aurora Chasers group for being away from city lights. It's not perfectly free of light pollution, but an excellent spot.
I figured that if I did go chasing Friday or Saturday night, I could bring my nephew. He's up all night anyways, he could be my bodyguard. ;-)

My plans fell apart Friday with a snow squall that left the roads icy and slushy. I bought a bus ticket and decided that there must be a Reason that my plans changed.

The Reason was that the Northern Lights came Sunday night, when I was still in Edmonton and not in Calgary as planned. :-)

And it wasn't just my nephew with me. I asked my sister if I could borrow a car and she said, "I'm coming with you! It's my birthday!" Her husband drove us out to Elk Island, along with my niece, and my nephew's friend.

I took a lot of photos, even before the Lights showed up at midnight. At one point, I just pointed my camera at the sky. And accidentally got some meteors.


Here are my favourites:






There was a pesky cloud formation on the horizon, but I managed to shoot above it. We left after that show - people had work to go to and buses to catch in the morning. I'm a LOT happier with these photos than last week's.