Sometimes life gives you lemons, and then sometimes it don't and you get scurvy. Friday night I was rather excited to finally get to see an aurora and then...nothing. Was mostly cloudy for most of the night but even when we got a break in the clouds there still wasn't anything to see.
Friends and family elsewhere were sending us their photos of it and it was almost irksome. We're at the foot of a hill, was hoping with some clearer skies and a better vantage point I might have better luck Saturday night. There's an overlook in the park near the house that'll let you see all the way to Indiana if Canada isn't on fire, so I headed for there just before sunset.
Got there just in time to catch the sunset, or at least what you could see of it in the gaps between the trees. Had smelled smoke as soon as I left the house and from the overlook you could see a haze just hanging in the air. Between that and some low clouds it made for an amazing sunset but didn't bode well for auroras.
Made the chemtrails contrails look rather cool too. Had plenty of company, seems I wasn't the only one who'd thought to head for the overlook. Was the only one who'd lugged a tripod up there though. One dude had brought a drone but a quick jaunt into the woods left it sounding (and flying) like an angry and mutilated hornet.
After the sun set there wasn't much to do except wait and hope the sky cleared. Saw some fireworks, heard some gunshots, and had the police chopper circling us for a half hour or so, or in other words a typical Louisville Saturday night. Just no aurora.
By the time the park closed at 2300 the clouds had mostly moved on but all you could make out was one of the dippers and a half dozen more stars, so I snapped a few long exposures and packed it in. That's Churchill Downs all lit up in the foreground, with downtown a few miles behind.
Even after I got home I kept checking the sky, finally gave up and went to bed around 0300. Guess this just means I'm gonna have to plan a trip waaaay up north to see it. Alright, who had better luck?