Aurora Borealis – January 14, 2023

Aurora Borealis – January 14, 2023
One of the 250 photos I took of the aurora borealis on the night of January 14, 2023

On the evening of January 14, 2023, between 9:30 and 10:15 pm Alaska time, the aurora borealis put on one of the most magnificent shows I have ever seen! From what I saw of the online Geophysical Institute all-sky camera, it looks like it snapped back just before 1 am, but I was asleep by then.

Around 9 pm, I took the dog outside and saw that the clouds from earlier had cleared and that there was a little bit of dull aurora dancing and a light band to the northeast. But it was also brightening, all while the dog took his sweet time sniffing in the snow. As soon as he finished, I got a camera on a tripod outside and took a few photos, but the northern lights seemed to be fading.

Fading aurora at 9 pm

I went back into the house because I had a lot of robot parts to collect in the Forbidden West on the Playstation, so I sat down with my controller and pulled up the GI Allsky camera on my phone. Within a few minutes, the sky was changing fast. Aloy was going to have to wait to upgrade her weapons.

The sky began to light up at 9:10 pm
Seven minutes later, from the exact location – structure starts to appear in the blobs
A stable band appears in the north, just above our treetops (9:23 pm)

Affiliate link – I earn a commission if you shop through the link(s) below at no additional cost to you (more info)

This band lasted about 8 minutes while not much else happened in the rest of the sky. Many rays were shimmering in the band, like a picket fence.

At 9:30 pm, waves started moving through the band from east to west. To capture these rapidly changing structures, I pushed the camera’s ISO high to 6400 and shot 0.8-second exposures.

A little more pink appears as waves move through the band

At 9:45 pm, the energetic band started moving across the sky to the south, passing directly overhead for a few minutes as it became brighter, sometimes oversaturating the camera sensor.

Lost highlights in the bright aurora
A little corona blasts overhead (9:45 pm)

Affiliate link – I earn a commission if you shop through the link(s) below at no additional cost to you (more info)
In My Camera Bag Now


Read about some of these in my Gear Reviews

Crimson appears on the bottom edge of the band (9:46 pm)
More corona “raining” down on us
Lighting up the entire sky overhead (9:49 pm)
Grande finale at 9:50 as the lights slowly crept back north and began to fade

Affiliate link – I earn a commission if you shop through the link(s) below at no additional cost to you (more info)

Little wisps of aurora remained in the southern sky (9:52 pm)

I don’t often do this, but I uploaded almost all the photos that I took over this sequence because when seen together, it’s possible to see how the structures evolve over time. If I had known that it would be such a good display, I would have run a timelapse. Oh, well. However, I did produce a short photo sequence that does somewhat show that structure evolution over the course of this hour.


Enjoying the content? Help keep this site running and support my creative work!


There is a possibility for more decent aurora tonight, although unlikely to be as good as this. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Fairbanks is mostly cloudy again. If the sky stays clear enough, I may set a camera to run a timelapse.

Add a comment

*Please complete all fields correctly

Related Posts

Wickersham One Week Later
The view from Wickersham Dome in the White Mountain National Recreation Area near Fairbanks, Alaska. Seemingly endless green hills and a bit of the Elliott Highway winding around them.