Point of No Return

Northern lights in a moonlit evening on Cleary Summit, about 30 km north of Fairbanks, Alaska. As noted by the photographer “The aurora just before this shot was taken was directly overhead. But then the arc started to collapse, and the aurora oval pulled away and began shrinking off to the north. You could see that the current display was shutting down for the evening, and I knew the oval would soon pull back to the northern horizon where I was now facing. The arc was rapidly growing smaller and smaller, so I knew I was now getting the last of the shots of the ending part of that evenings show. The aurora was not about to turn around and start to rebuild, it was in the phase of winding down. It had reached the point of no return, and it was time to say goodbye for the evening. One last look while it was still high in the sky, even though it was at least 200 miles away by now. It was getting near time to go back home anyway, as it was about 3:00am, and I was once again ready for the warmth of bed and sleep.”