ok so you know what we have what's been going so this is spitzbergen the koehler peninsula it's got all the way from the north to the color peninsula we should be able to see it at the horizon which is good and this is the color peninsula this is the southern boundary of the oval for polar lights we can see everything on the map our forecast works everything's great. i set my camera and waited and just under an hour later the most spectacular light show on earth began. wow. this is incredible i can see why so many people say this is one of the few things they want to see before they die. i'm at the top of the world and i feel on top of the world right now. i know people see unusual things in the aura but for me it seemed like a herd of different animals was almost moving across the sky it was one of the most amazing things i'd ever seen and i couldn't have been more grateful to jaroslaw of sergei and a colleague from n t and she got a. i knew nothing was going to to compare. seeing the northern lights but i still had a few days left before i had to be back in moscow. time enough to take

. >> reporter: my stepfather henry koehler, hadn't seen his portrait of president and mrs.> reporter: 86 and still at work, he was just 36 when the kennedys commissioned the picture. >> reporter: how important was it? >> it was an important one. >> reporter: so important that up in his attic in south hampton, new york he still keeps a fire of correspondent. >> "sports illustrated." >> reporter: and here's the file attached to it. in it a 1960 cover story he illustrated on sailing. jackie kennedy liked this painting of his. she saw this in the magazine right here. >> she saw this in the magazine and she wanted it to give jack. >> reporter: it was an anniversary gift. jackie later appeared in front of it in this newspaper photograph. >> i love what she says. it's by far the prettiest picture in our house and the only one i've given him that he likes. >> that was a pretty good compliment was it not. >> reporter: a few years later he was asked to paint a picture of the president sailing. >> it was commissioned by the two sisters to give their three brothers for christmas. >> re