In the plains of remote eastern Alaska lies H.A.A.R.P. (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), an Ionoshphere research facility built in the early 1990s through joint effort from U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and D.A.R.P.A. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). In 2015, the site for fully handed over to UAF.
In 2019, SKYGLOW became one of the first civilian entities to be allowed to conduct a full night photography shoot of the magnificent Class 1 quality night skies over H.A.A.R.P. and this video and the rare footage in it is the result of that effort. As chance would have it, aurora borealis rolled in halfway in the night, providing a spectacular northern lights show as a backdrop. Just like the stars, aurora borealis visibility is heavily impacted by light pollution, so H.A.A.R.P.’s pristine night skies were critical to what is depicted in the footage.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
