Northern Lights in Skagit

I've been following a Washington State group on-line which watches for the aurora borealis. There was a lot of excitement in the group last night, as reports suggested a high likelihood for sighting them in the midnight hours.

People started reporting seeing the lights south of me around 11 PM. I had no plan and I was tired, but just the same, I decided to go looking. I ended up driving out towards Samish Island, where there is less light and the water is near.  It was so quiet. A car drove by about once every half hour.  The milky way was visible, as were the lights of the refinery, Anacortes, Mt. Constitution, and so on. I heard little critters--little I think--moving in the brush. There wasn't much moon, and though I'm very comfortable in such settings, it still was spooky.

I didn't get a good view on the northern lights. No bunches of green.  I did seem to see columns of light moving around a little bit, and I'm pretty sure that was them. There was a pale glow in the sky, beyond the island and Blanchard. I think if I had a better camera, it would've picked up something more with an open shutter/time lapse approach. We have one, and tripods too, so maybe this will be a winter mission, perhaps up at Mt. Baker or at Northern States.

Alas, the best picture I got is the black photo above, from my phone. If you click on it, there is a slight glow about midway up, trust me. The night adventure though was pretty cool.