After about 4 hours sleep, the day ahead looked rough. However, Whitehorse was ready for us. The girls debated whether to wear their parkas out for our breakfast excursion and one head outside the door sent them scurrying back to the room for them.
Breakfast was at a gem of a place called the 506 (for the address on main) run by a very small staff but one that turns out great eggs Benedict.
It doesn’t take much to walk around downtown. We did some shopping and I purchase a baklava for my head and a new wallet. With the favorable exchange rate it was worth it.
Whitehorse has its homeless population. Within a two block location we were panhandled twice. Only very reluctantly did one ask for money. Again, Canadians are so polite. Little did they know we’re experts with Florida panhandlers.
We returned to the hotel and had a very light lunch and we all agreed we desperately needed sleep. It was to no avail. None of us could sleep.
Dinner was down the street at G&P Steakhouse and Pizza. We didn’t have reservations so we sat at the bar. It was great. All three ordered the 8 oz filet and it was absolutely delicious.
The reason for the trip is to view the Aurora. We met in the lobby and Toshi, Tom, and Khoon met us and loaded us onto a yellow school bus. There were 32 of us with about 8 virgins. The rest were either on their second excursion or their final night of viewing.
One couple from Toronto had seen the lights last night and everyone rates their nights. They were told the night before their first viewing was outstanding. You’ll notice a trend here in a minute.
We were driven out of town approximately 30 km and deposited on a lakeside. We were divided into two groups and each group had their own set of “cabins” – in reality framed tents – and an outdoor privy and fire ring. Inside the tent was a wood burning stove, hot coffee, tea and cocoa and snacks. You could roast marshmallows by the fire.
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After a brief introduction we were taken out on the lake. Khoon suggested we use an ISO of 800-1600 with 20 second exposures if the Aurora is dim. He said we may be looking at the Aurora now but only the camera would be able to pick it up as dim as it was. We all wondered if this was as good as it would get!
Around 11 pm I spotted some activity a little northeast of where Khoon suggested. Success! The camera picked it up. It steadily built in intensity until you could see it pretty well with your eyes. Later, it spread across the sky.
This was getting exciting! I kept clicking away. For those who are interested, you set your camera to the “bulb” function which is the timed exposure. My wide angle lens only stops down to 4.0. Most web sites on Aurora photography suggest f-stop of 2.0 but I had practiced at home and found my camera capable of night photography. My wide angle is great with ISO so it worked well. You also need a tripod (a must) and an intervoltometer which is a fancy way to say remote shutter release. Actually, it’s a little more sophisticated in that you can also do time lapse photography over a period of programmed exposures and intervals. My goal was to take 99 exposures of 20 seconds each every 10 seconds. Later, at home, I’ll try to use the exposures to produce a time lapse movie. Here’s one of those exposures.
It quieted down activity-wise around 1:30 am. In conversation with others, we found tonight’s activity not as good as last night’s (see the pattern) but tonight was more regular. Looks like we’ll tell the same story to tomorrow’s virgins.
The temperature settled down to 24F and by the end of the viewing, my foot warmers were cooling off and my rosy cheeks were about to fall off. Not those cheeks, the ones on my face.
At 2 am the clocks shifted to DST so instead of departing at 2 am we departed at 3 am which means less sleep. The good news was by 3 am, the band in the saloon was gone, the saloon was closed, the dog next door was asleep and the couple in the next room who played their tv all night had checked out! I slept like a baby for four hours and promptly awoke Fort Lauderdale time.
Today is a tour of Whitehorse, a trip to a nature preserve, a dip in the hot springs and a 10 pm departure for Aurora viewing!
