{"id":2178,"date":"2025-04-28T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurorasaurudev.wpengine.com\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2025-12-12T20:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:17:32","slug":"dreams-fulfilled-and-galactic-marvels-unlocked-as-the-aurora-brings-people-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/?p=2178","title":{"rendered":"Dreams fulfilled and galactic marvels unlocked as the aurora brings people together"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is the second in our series on the recent Winter Field School. You can read the first post <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. The aurora is an awe-inspiring phenomenon that captures the imagination and fascination of people across the world. As a common interest, it brings together many different kinds of experience and expertise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, Winter Field School participants hailed from across America. These nine undergraduate and graduate students, who had been part of the <\/span>Eclipse Ambassadors<\/span><\/a> program, pursue a variety of academic majors, from physics to meteorology to scientific illustration. In early January, they traveled to a week-long Eclipses to Aurora: Winter Field School at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to round out the Heliophysics Big Year with an educational hands-on introduction to another aspect of the field of heliophysics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As one of their assignments, they crafted \u201cepiphany essays\u201d describing their learning. In this post, part of a series highlighting their thoughts and reflections, the students describe how the aurora makes them feel connected to their peers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In our nighttime visit to Poker Flat Rocket Range, I realized what my father meant when he once reminded me that one day I will get to see amazing things in my life that human beings can only dream of. Under the sun-buttered, ghost-blue glow of the aurora, the patience and prudence my dad encouraged me to face my challenges with had paid off because I was a part of a truly unique experience. As I witnessed the wind-whipped wonder wander through the sky, it occurred to me that<\/span> those \u201camazing things\u201d don\u2019t just include the aurora, they also included my fellow explorers<\/b>.\u00a0 <\/span>We share a strenuous and sometimes stupefying search not only for galactic marvels, but also for community to guide us through the inscrutable mysteries forming the fabric of our consciousness.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014Amehja<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Stretching<\/a><\/p>\n

With a faint glow at Cleary Summit, my wishes seemed like something I could dream with my eyes open. Like something I could do, something that was real. A few images showed what was barely visible to the naked eye, and for the first time in a long while, I was flooded with nothing but hope. After passing glances of lights I thought I saw, flashes that I was unsure were real, we arrived at our aurora chase at Poker Flat. Polaris was at its high, Orion near my sightline, and three shooting stars brighter than I had ever seen before with my residing city lights. <\/span>I laughed and smiled as they shot across the sky, and I realized that the animations I had seen on television I thought were cartoonish exaggerations, were actually something people have seen since the beginning of time<\/b>. I saw Jupiter and its four Galilean moons through my telescope which I just learned how to use. This was something I only thought possible for astrophysicists and revered scientists. There was our moon in the Waxing Gibbous phase that illuminated almost all of the night sky as far as I could see. But that night, it was not the moonlight I sought.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, I looked to the darkest horizon I could find to see my only constant dream fulfilled before my eyes, so slowly dancing and bending to cradle the stars. All I could do, with my hands frozen and tears falling, I began to dream again with my eyes wide open.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Andrea<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Through<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, we engaged in speaker presentations. Sitting there, I said to myself, \u201cWow I come across from a very different academic background.\u201d Later I realized, \u201cWait a second, <\/span>so do the people around me, and that\u2019s the beauty of this program<\/b>.\u201d I also realized that the aurora chasers, PhD students, and scientists had one thing in common: they persevered. Those speakers inspired me that my journey was unique to myself, and that I didn\u2019t need to prove to anyone but myself that I can achieve anything that I put my mind to. The series of lectures this week enlightened me that the science behind it is magnificent, and the experience\u2014the raw, unfiltered beauty\u2014is something that changed me. It was as if the universe had opened just for me, inviting me into its ancient, swirling dance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Vishvi<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

The experience of chasing the aurora with the group I was with felt like no other feeling I\u2019d had. <\/span>Seeing the glee of others falling on the snow, taking pictures, and laughing together as a group really made the chase of the aurora so much fun<\/b>.<\/span> I guarantee it that one day I will return to Fairbanks to chase the auroras just like how I did in the Winter Field School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Emmanuel<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Dr. Liz notes: \u201cIt is so nice to read the students\u2019 reactions to the aurora, which connected them not only to each other, but to humanity more broadly. I hope seeing the aurora was a dream come true that opened their eyes to the future, empowering and sustaining them for persevering on their personal quests.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We hope you enjoyed these portraits of their experiences. Stay tuned for more from Winter Field School students!<\/span><\/p>\n

The Winter Field School was a supplement to the <\/span><\/i>Eclipse Ambassadors<\/span><\/i><\/a> program, and was led by <\/span><\/i>Aurorasaurus<\/span><\/i><\/a> and the <\/span><\/i>Astronomical Society of the Pacific<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The photos in this post were taken by WFS participant Jeffrey.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is the second in our series on the recent Winter Field School. You can read the first post here. The aurora is an awe-inspiring phenomenon that captures the imagination and fascination of people across the world. As a common interest, it brings together many different kinds of experience and expertise.\u00a0 Likewise, Winter Field… Read More »Dreams fulfilled and galactic marvels unlocked as the aurora brings people together<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,7,30],"tags":[22,20,21,23],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aurora-testimonials","category-citizen-science","category-education","category-fieldwork","tag-arctic","tag-auroras","tag-citizen-science","tag-northern-lights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}