2008-02オーロラ４

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Aurora Trip （４） (2008-02-16～21)

After about three years of inactivity I finally managed to visit Alaska, where I had a good fortune to view magnificent aurora the last time.

Japan Airlines started to operate chartered flights between Narita and Fairbanks, Ak since two years ago. Flight time to Fairbanks was reduced to a mere 6 hours, compared to about 24 hours if you flew scheduled flights which force you to fly to Seattle first and then connect to Anchorage and Fairbanks.

I was not expecting so much passengers to an Aurora viewing trip, but my jumbo jet was almost fully booked! There must have been more than 350 people aboard the airplane.

This time, I had a good fortune to view aurora three nights out of 4 nights. I was able to capture a fair number of images despite the fact we were under full moon and clouds for most of the time.
(Camera=Nikon F10, Lens=Sigma 20mm f1.8, Film=Fuji Superia Venus 800, Exposure=4sec.)

	Aurora at Chena Lake The lake is located at 50km east of Fairbanks A bus takes you to the lakeside. You change to a snowmobile to the lake.
	Aurora at Chena Spring Resort Chena Hot Spring Resort is located at about 100km east of Fairbanks. It has outdoor hot spring pool and other attractions such as Ice Palace which operates year round at -5 degrees Celsius.
	Aurora at Ski Land A bus takes you to a lodge at 700m mountain top. You can have a cup of coffee inside or watch for aurora outside.
	Movie The movie was made with PhotoStory. Click on the link and view the movie. You can return to this page by closing the Media Player window.(Click on X on the window.) (You need to install Media Player 10 or later version to view it.)
	Sketches of Fairbanks Day-time snapshots of Fairbanks.
	Certificate of Aurora Club Membership certificate from the city of Fairbanks.