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Aurora Borealis - May 10, 2024, Last Installment.

On Friday afternoon, May 10, 2024, Jan and I were getting coffee in a very small somewhat crowded coffee shop in downtown Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  We overheard people talking about the Northern Lights showing up that night.  And thus began one of the most exciting nights of photography in my life.  If you have read my three previous blog posts you have seen some of the spectacular color displays we were able to capture.  In these images I have included some foreground information to put the color displays in perspective.  The picture above was taken to the northeast of the Trumpeter property where they house the pygmy goats and alpacas.
Looking to the northwest you can see the moon low on the horizon.  The building shown here has an additional suite that is separate from the main B&B house..  
This image is looking due east showin the stable for the animals.  
Another view to the east showing the building with the separate suite mentioned above.
Looking north into the entrance to the Trumpeter Inn.  This was later in the night.  I started photographing  just after 10 pm when the aurora was mostly just green and not very bright. Then the colors started showing up, getting brighter and more colorful until after midnight when the display began to calm down and return to mostly green.  This image was taken at the beginning of that transition.

In all I took about 150 images that night.  I put them into a slide show and each time I run them I am blown away.   I hope you were able to enjoy them as well.

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