There was a prediction that the Aurora Borealis would be visible well south in the US and, with clear skies in the area, I figured I would definitely go and see if I could get some shots. I thought my best location would be Mukilteo since I could be on the waterfront with an unobstructed view to the north. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to have that thought. There were tons of vehicles lined up trying to find a space in the parking lot at Mukilteo.
I didn’t even bother to mess with this and turned around. I figured I would try the park at the other end of the waterfront and found a parking spot as soon as I arrived. No need to park on the street outside the park. There were still a lot of people there waiting including a few cameras pointed skywards. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything to shoot. The predicted aurora never got as well developed as far south as us. I got a few shots including some where I tried to work out whether it was just ambient light on clouds in the distance or some sort of illumination from above but it was a bust.
The presence of JBLM south of Tacoma means that there are plenty of military helicopters operating in the Seattle area. I got lucky late in one day when a Chinook called up on approach. They weren’t landing at the field but just flying through. I got a good view of it as it came in to the field. They then turned downwind to depart providing a background view as a local JetRanger came in to land. I am not a big fan of the sand finish used on the Chinooks these days but they do pick up the light.
