Chasing the Northern Lights: Alaska and Aurora Borealis

Alaska and aurora borealis go hand in hand. For some of us, that’s the dream, and roughly nine months of the year we can be seen chasing the northern lights. If you’ve been following me these past eight years, you might think I’m actually northern lights chasing every week! But the simple truth is, I get out when I can and don’t live in the BEST place for northern lights.

I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and it is GOOD for chasing the northern lights, but unless it’s a really strong solar storm, I need to drive north for two reasons. First, and foremost, the light pollution in the city will drown out most northern lights. Second, and possibly more important, as far north as Anchorage is, it’s still too far south to be the best place to see northern lights. As far as Alaska is concerned, the best place for northern lights is Fairbanks or even further north off the road system.

Bright green Northern Lights dancing across the night sky in Alaska

Then again, if you’ve been following my socials or this blog for a few years, you know I’ve seen some truly spectacular aurora shows, and I’m here to share that info with you in a couple of ways:

I can’t wait to share my latest aurora borealis pictures and timelapses
I want to share my tips for seeing the northern lights
I will do my best to explain the different ways aurora borealis appear, both on camera and to our eyes

Aurora borealis timelapse from Hatcher Pass on 11/11/25

How to See the Northern Lights

Chasing aurora borealis from Anchorage, Alaska means going out late at night again and again. Many nights end in a total dud! My camera might pick up a faint green glow, but my eyes only see a hazy cloud on the horizon.

People often ask me how to see the northern lights and the truth is I don’t go out looking for aurora unless the data looks good; I check the space weather forecast to see if aurora borealis are likely and then the astronomer’s forecast to see what cloud cover will be like. If the space weather forecast looks good but the weather isn’t, then I’ll check places like ClearDarkSky, Windy and other weather apps to see if there’s somewhere I can drive to. Ideally you have totally clear skies, but even cloudy forecasts can have great aurora displays.

Aurora borealis glowing at night

Aurora Chasing in Alaska: What to Expect

The number one character trait of a good aurora chaser is PATIENCE. You might be staring at a starry night for a few hours before Lady Aurora decides to show herself. Maybe your camera will pick up some green but your eyes won’t; that’s a good sign! Check the data—is the solar wind speed high and the Bz negative? That’s good for northern lights!

No, I don’t really know the science behind Bz or most solar weather terms. Yes, negative Bz is what you want for dancing aurora! If the data looks good then you just sit tight. Maybe have a cup of hot cocoa or practice your astrophotography.

Chasing the Northern Lights in Alaska

While I’m waiting for the northern lights to show, I will set my focus on the camera, and I might play around with a few frames—find a reflection, maybe a tree for a silhouette, or mountain to put in the foreground. Some nights the aurora never shows even though data looked good. I waited for 2-3 hours and had to turn in so be prepared to go out a few nights.

Read my steps for photographing aurora borealis and pay special attention to how you focus your shot!

In Alaska, and want the best place for northern lights?
Read my detailed list of everywhere I’ve been for aurora chasing!

Tips for Seeing the Northern Lights: Camera vs. Reality

Depending on the settings, long exposures absorb tens or even a hundred times more light than my eyes do. That means when your eyes barely register the aurora, your camera might show a green night sky! The long exposure also means that the dancing and other aurora movement gets blurred into a larger patch on the sky. The still frames miss the beauty of the dance but have much more color than yours eyes can see!

Aurora borealis timelapse from Hatcher Pass on 11/11/25

Most northern lights videos are a timelapse and move faster than the actual aurora borealis. There are some cameras that can take live video and I recently I had success with my iPhone 16Pro. (See the Giphy below.). I hear the Sony A7 series is the current frontrunner for northern lights videos but that one isn’t in my budget.

Realtime video from my house on Sept. 29th, 2025 via iPhone 16Pro Green, the most common color, often appears white in person, while reds and purples will only be visible to your eyes in the strongest of solar storms. The green cloud might grow into a bright band. At that point, not only does your camera pick up the green, but your eyes will start to see color too! With any luck, it keeps on growing and dancing all night.

Pink flashes are rare but can be seen by your eyes. They typically move much faster than other aurora and disappear into the hazy cloud. After a strong display, the aurora borealis might fall into a recovery state and pulse slightly, grow, and then suddenly shrink in a strange pattern. It might disappear completely and reappear somewhere else in the sky.

Aurora borealis glowing at night

When the aurora forecast is strong, you hope for clear skies, but even then forecasts are often wrong. The solar event can miss Earth entirely; it might arrive far earlier or later than predicted. It might hit us with a glancing blow, but when a big storm hits us, that cloud will just be the beginning of an all-night show!

Understanding Aurora Tiers: From Faint to Phenomenal

I’m not sure if there is any official scale, but I like to think of the northern lights as having various tiers of impressiveness depending on the solar flare and, unfortunately, cloud cover. Large bands of light can form bright lines on the horizon, or better yet, curtains directly above you. Pillars of even brighter light could dance down from that curtain.

Understanding Aurora Tiers: From Faint to Phenomenal

Those pillars and curtains bring awe as the light dances down towards you. If you’re lucky, this dancing will expand and grow! You might have a combination of aurora formations—one on the horizon, another closer to you, or if you’re really lucky, a dozen dazzling displays throughout the sky! The absolute best is when a corona opens right above your head. It feels like you’re watching a portal to the other side of the galaxy!

That’s when you know it’s good. When there are dozens of dazzling displays and you are seeing northern lights all 360° around you, then it is the night of your life! The only problem is this display is an addictive drug. Be careful you don’t do something crazy like moving to Alaska!

So better yet, don’t go chasing aurora borealis. Just keep reading to hear about my greatest aurora chase yet and enjoy my photos.

Bright green Northern Lights dancing across the night sky in Alaska

Chasing the Northern Lights in Hatcher Pass: 11/11/25

The end of 2025 was a solar maximum, and an intense solar storm sent a massive X-flare along with two Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) that arrived on Earth on November 11th, 2025. Three separate solar events culminated in aurora over most of the planet—even Florida and Mexico reported seeing northern lights! Up here in Alaska, those “typical” colors were thrown out the window. I could clearly see red, pink, and purple bands like never before!

I’d been following the space weather forecast for days, checking ClearDarkSky and Windy repeatedly. When I saw the data on three flares arriving together, I knew this would be special—in eight years of aurora chasing, I’d only seen a storm like this once before, back in March 2023 when my friend Aaron and I drove four hours to Gulkana. I started telling everyone to go out that night.

Timelapse from March 23rd, 2023

Before leaving for Hatcher Pass, I was home with my wife Elizabeth and daughter Emmalynn when magically, all three of us saw a beautiful red band dance directly above us. A truly bright corona looks like a portal to another world, and this pink corona at 6:00 PM brought the whole city out. While Anchorage flooded social media, I set my camera up to capture the display while playing with Emmalynn, who kept asking to “see lights?” Elizabeth left for orchestra rehearsal, and though I felt the pull to chase, I thoroughly enjoyed giggling with my toddler before getting her to bed.

Beautiful red aurora band dancing above a house in the night sky

Once Elizabeth returned, I jumped in my car—camera, snacks, and hot tea already packed. I’d gotten skunked on this exact drive twice in the last month, but tonight was going to make up for all those cloudy nights. As I drove the Glenn Highway toward Hatcher Pass, street lights blocked all but the brightest aurora, but once I turned toward the mountains, a faint glow appeared out the window. The higher elevation would give me better foregrounds for photos, and with my usual Knik River spot foggy, Hatcher Pass turned out to be perfect. Tonight was going to be worth it.

Aurora in Hatcher Pass: A Night to Remember

I parked at Independence Mine in Hatcher Pass, and as soon as I got out of the car, I could see aurora borealis brightly in front of me! Red glowed above the northern mountain peaks while light pillars danced upward. I quickly set my camera up, then realized more light was dancing above the western mountains. Despite the 13°F chill, I started shooting immediately.

I use the interval timer on my Nikon D7500 for timelapse videos, aiming for at least a hundred photos without touching the camera. Once the first timelapse was running, I grabbed my warmest gear—thank you to my sponsors Venustas for a heated jacket and Weston for heated glove liners! But on a night like this, it was hard to just let the camera work; wildly different displays were happening in every direction. Looking south toward Palmer, bright aurora danced directly above the rural city.

Aurora borealis glowing over Hatcher Pass mountains in Alaska at night

I spent the next four hours working my way up the road, stopping every 5 or 10 minutes to capture different timelapses. The lights were literally out of this world. I could have stayed all night if not for work the next day and a toddler at home.

As I drove home, my memory card full of aurora pictures and my heart full of gratitude, I couldn’t help but smile. These are the nights that make all those cloudy skies and false alarms worth it. The 11/11/25 aurora will go down as one of the most spectacular displays I’ve ever witnessed, and sharing it with Emmalynn—even if she won’t remember—made it perfect. So if you’re considering chasing the northern lights, my advice is simple: be patient, check the forecast, and when the data looks good, GO. You never know when you’ll witness your own once-in-a-lifetime show.

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