“…The temperature plummeted in the wee hours of the morning lending a clarity to the sky that rarely exists. Two weeks of intense cold and ice fog had left the river delta blanketed with a heavy thick crystalline frost. Massive rare red auroral displays had begun dancing across the heavens since sunset, ebbing back and forth like a celestial tide encompassing the earth. Upon returning once again to Alaska’s skies, the great aurora magically re-appeared above the southern horizon and erupted in brilliant red, flaming up above the Chugach Mountains. The fantastic scene graced the stars for only a few short minutes, before pushing over the horizon and disappearing again equatorward to surprise skywatchers in the southern reaches of the northern hemisphere. This once-in-a-lifetime display lasted 36 hours, allowing for a full rotation of darkness around the globe, so the lucky few who were awake could witness its awe-inspiring grandeur…”