A brief display of Northern Lights shines over a prairie lake.
Last night I went out to a nearby lake (there aren’t many in southern Alberta!) to shoot the twilight over water, and hoping to catch some aurora or noctilucent clouds as well.
There was lots of twilight but very little sign of aurora or NLCs. But at about 1 am the aurora kicked up briefly, enough to make a good photo but certainly nothing to get excited about for its visual appearance. It was just visible.
However, it was a fine evening of shooting at a quiet prairie lake. Crawling Lake is one of several reservoirs in the area that are part of the extensive irrigation system in southern Alberta. Despite the recent floods, this area is usually dry and drought-sticken.
This shot, which I took early in the evening, shows the lone star of Capella, shining in the twilight of a solstice summer sky. From my latitude of 51° N, Capella, normally considered a winter star, is circumpolar. It never sets and so can be seen skimming along the northern horizon on short summer nights.
An ultra-wide view shows the perpetual twilight of summer to the north, with the circumpolar stars of summer above. A campfire from some late-arriving campers is on the shore at right.
Happy Canada Day!
– Alan, July 1, 2013 / © 2013 Alan Dyer
The Amazing Sky 
Alan! Another beautiful set of images! Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us.
Question: does the aurora show only through your camera, or could those campers, for example, have seen them dancing?
Hi! In this case the aurora was pretty faint and needed the longer exposure of the camera to really bring it out. I could see it but I knew what I was looking for. Blinded by campfires, campers would have missed it.