Alaska's amazing light show

Alaska Range 2013-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

When Dave Parkhurst moved to Alaska in 1981, people told him about the light shows; they also said not to bother trying to photograph them. Parkhurst took that as a challenge. He carries his camera into some of Alaska's most remote places, capturing stunning images of the Northern Lights.

This photograph, taken in 2013, features a large single auroral curtain sweeping to the northwest, which lasted 4-5 minutes.

Read more here.

Alaska light show

BoreTide-Turnagain Arm-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

"It's totally spiritual, because it's so powerful, it's beyond your imagination," Parkhurst says of seeing the Aurora Borealis.

This photograph, taken in 2012 during the spring Bore Tide, features a rare violet southward pulsing aurora.

Alaska light show

Breathless-Great Red Aurora-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

Parkhurst captured this photo in November of 2001. Below-zero temperatures, along with night after night of ice fog, helped crystallize the snow cover, the river’s edge and encrust every stem of every bush and tree with thick hoar frost.

This photo features an extremely rare once-in-a-lifetime red aurora that Parkhurst says left him awestruck and breathless from the humbling experience of it all.

Alaska light show

Cordova Red Aurora 1981-Lg.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

"It's kind of a fickle light," Parkhurst says. "Film got better and is better than it's ever been now. You only have seconds. When they explode, they can cover, you know, 180 degrees of the sky in a few seconds."

This photograph was taken in February of 1981, in Cordova, Alaska.

Alaska light show

Emerald Winds-Portage-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

The Aurora appears when highly charged solar winds strike particles on the edge of space. Alaska is the best place in the U.S. to see the Northern Lights.

2012

Alaska light show

Lightscapes-1989 -CBS FIle.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

In October 1989, the city of Anchorage sleeps under a rare red aurora that blends with a vortex of yellow lower aurora in the southwestern skies.

Alaska light show

Midnight Magenta-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

Green auroras are the most common. Red are the rarest, seen just six to 10 times each decade.

2006

Alaska light show

Even in Alaska, with 20 hours of dark winter skies, there is no guarantee of seeing the lights.

With the blue of dawn twilight beginning to rise, very fast pulsing auroral sheet with rare purple fringes appeared. It lasted in to dawn light but disappeared with the stars.

2012

Alaska light show

O'Malley Ridge 55Below-Copy.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

When Parkhurst took this photo in 1989, his thermometer measured -50, but with the mercury bottomed out and brisk 10 mph winds, he says it was easily -55.

Alaska light show

Ruby & Pearls-CBS File.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

In this 2001 photo, the rarest of red auroral displays in the southern skies and was seen as far south as the far southern U.S. and southern Asia.

Alaska light show

Venus TKA River-CBS.jpg — Dave Parkhurst

"It never gets old," Parkhurst says. "Every show is like a fingerprint, so you're experiencing that moment and it's over."

2012