Around midnight Sunday, with conditions just right, researchers launched four rockets from the the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range, northeast of Fairbanks, into an aurora-bedecked sky.
The rockets were designed to help researchers learn more about turbulence in the upper atmosphere and at the margin where the atmosphere meets space.
But they were also beautiful in juxtaposition with the bright northern lights display, as photographer and videographer Ronn Murray, who shares this video, discovered.