Mia Stålnacke

@angrytheinch.bsky.social

Kiruna Ambassador Of The Year 2020 - Lighthunter in subarctic 🇸🇪 - squirrels - published by NatGeo, Forbes, Nature

I had to put a frame on it because it's too wide. I know, it's atrocious. But imagine standing on a bridge with the aurora flowing above you, all across the sky from west to east. It's such an amazing experience.

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Have you ever seen the aurora while on a hill surrounded by thick fog rising? Whenever I'm in situations like this, I think about what ancient people must have thought. If I'm creeped out, and I know what I'm looking at, they must have been terrified. That's how myths are born.

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As soon as the moving of the church was done & the world's media had left Kiruna, the mining company LKAB broke the news that another 6000 people will have to leave their homes and relocate due to mining. Plus schools and businesses. They knew this before but chose to wait.

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It's not always dancing wildly across the sky. Not always a huge display of lights and colours shooting from west to east, forming coronas overhead and filling the sky. No, sometimes it's this. A thin green line. Flowing like a celestial river. It's beautiful all the same.

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The photo I posted earlier is actually a screenshot from a real-time video I filmed of an auroral corona. As I've said before, the aurora when active moves rapidly and is constantly changing. You never know what you'll get! The shape in the pic appears at around 15sec and is gone in seconds.

When paths cross. By no means a perfect picture, once in my junk folder. But I like it. Now. The Milky Way and an auroral corona crossing paths in the night sky. Completely unaware of each other's existence. Completely unaware of anything. Just existing, then and there.

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Laying in the tall grass one late autumn night. A purple and green auroral corona dances overhead while the moon illuminates the landscape. The Milky Way stretching across the sky, barely visible, outshined by the brilliance of the lights.

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Better get out of the way. This part was smooth sailing but did you know that in some places they only had centimeters to spare. The church is now resting on the road until tomorrow when the journey continues. Kiruna is alive and packed with people these few days.

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We are moving the massive wooden Kiruna church today here in the far north. Such a feat of engineering. 40 meters wide and almost 700'000 kilos, moving down the streets at 0,5km/h. Today I walked with the church. The mine, the reason for this move, in the background.

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