While waiting for the Aurora

Saturday March 16, 2013 - Predictions for a great Aurora Borealis were excellent.  The solar activity promised the Aurora to display all the way South in Massachusetts.  Being a big fans of this phenomenon my wife and I made reservations at  an inn in Caribou, Maine.  7 1/2 hours later we were scouting out for good locations.  The skies were clear as can be and the excitement escalating.  We had dinner and drove out to the planned location.  To cut a long story short, 14 degree temperatures were not going to stop us from photographing the Aurora.  5 hours later it is 3:00 and there is no sign of the event.  We packed up and went back to the hotel.  BIG MISTAKE - 4:30 the lights turned on and by 5:00 AM some of the most spectacular images were being captured but the lucky photographers while we slept soundly.While waiting I decided to take some short time lapses.  Did one with the camera pointed at Polaris. This was a short 20 minute capture resulting in few seconds of video.  The individual images were then stacked to create a star-trail.Here is the video:stars1The stack looks great - the glow in the lower half is light pollution from some homes and towers in the distance.  Click on the image for a larger view.