Talk about the best $7.2 million ever spent.

When US Secretary of State William H. Seward bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, he couldn’t have possibly imagined how awesome the territory would look in time-lapse. What you see above is the area around Anchorage, Alaska, the most populous city in the state. Unlike most major cities, however, you’ll find no suburbs or smog stretching as far as the eye can see. This city offers remarkable natural sights even within city lines.

The northern lights are just one of those sights. Appearing when charged solar particles hit atoms in the high atmosphere, the aurora borealis shimmers through the night sky like giant ghosts swaying in the wind. Anchorage is just the place to catch the phenomenon. The northernmost major city in the United States, Anchorage is located close to the pole, where the earth’s magnetic field pulls the charged particles towards the earth.

It is a show that’s probably worth the cost of the state itself.