The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, ...they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than the most skillful dancer.
-- Philip Pullman, 'The Golden Compass'
On clear nights, bundled against the cold and scanning the dark sky, one can see the faint ribbon of the northern lights pulsing along the horizon. But for a few hours last night, the entire sky was alive with brilliant aurora. Bands of light curled and snapped overhead, curtains twisting across the sky from horizon to horizon. Reaching from just above your head out to infinite space, the glowing bands seemed to trace a pathway into the sky.
This cluster of buildings is the only light source for hundreds of miles, and it would be easy to bundle up and stare at the sky all night. But we're here to work, and the time for our nightly balloon-borne measurements came right amid the spectacle. Usually a one-man operation, the three science techs teamed up to get the balloon off efficiently. We stopped for a photo before releasing the radiosonde up into the glowing sky.
