An unusual picture which shows the entire auroral oval was obtained by the Auroral Scanning Photometer on the ISIS-2 satellite during a quiet period on December 16, 1974. This essentially instantaneous view showed the auroral distribution to be continuous with a remarkable smooth equatorward boundary through all local times, except at noon where emission rates fall below background. The instantaneous pattern departs significantly from the statistical auroral oval, but the intensity ratios I(5577 Å)/I(3914 Å) at different local times are generally consistent with what would be expected from statistical studies of particle precipitation. Data from this period show clearly the dangers in attempting to infer the state of the magnetosphere, or even the likely precipitation pattern in other sectors, from data gathered at a single longitude. The observations indicate that plasmasheet precipitation occurs around the entire auroral oval with the possible exception of the dayside gap.