Wonderful article! Bucket list indeed. Here’s another way to see the northern lights: For those flying from the East Coast to China, chances are your flight will travel far enough north to catch an incredible view of the aurora borealis on a portion of the flight. Might want to check your route of flight on FlightAware.com and then go to NOAA’s space weather prediction site, SWPC.NOAA.GOV and see if your flight will pass through the aurora. Or better yet, ask your flight crew if they would let you know if, and when, you might see the aurora. Had an incredible show out my window on a recent Washington-Hong Kong Cathay Pacific flight.
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The Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland was the first to understand that the Sun was the source of the northern lights. His famous Terrella experiment in 1896, in which he created synthetic northern lights, can be seen as the start of modern space activities. We have made a very nice documentary (in eight languages) that tells the complete story about the northern lights.
Northern Lights - a Magic Experience:
https://vimeo.com/191345572
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The Americans in this article sound like idiots. Everywhere Americans go things have to be commercialized and money made. Sad.
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Most long-time residents of Northern Wisconsin have seen the Northern Lights as few times in their lives even in the summer months. My late wife and I even saw them from the dock of the Memorial Union in Madison on a September evening. My best sighting was an interesting one and one which likely can no longer be duplicated. #1 son was spending the spring semester in Oslo and I flew over to visit him in February, 2001. I am a fitful sleeper crossing the Atlantic in the eastern direction and I was wandering around in the First Class cabin on a KLM 747. About midway through the flight, a flight attendant asked if I would like to visit the cockpit. Of course I did, and I spent roughly a half hour enjoying the Northern Lights with the flight crew, at 30,000 feet. It was a spectacular sight. Sadly, of course, the events of 9/11 make such a viewing no longer possible for a mere passenger.
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Astronomers occasionally inform us that the aurora will be visible here in New York, but light pollution is so bad that you can never see it, or any other more common celestial events. But once when I was in college, about 45 years ago, amazing to think it was so far back, I was up in the middle of the night in the dead of winter listening to the late, great jazz station WRVR. The DJ said someone called in to say it was up there. I went out onto the patio in the freezing night and was astounded to see one of the most awesome sights I've ever beheld, right there in Brooklyn. The goosebumps were not so much from the cold as from my astonishment at what I was seeing. The Northern Lights were waving like a colossal green flag directly over my head, covering most of the sky. One commenter here said the sight was "creepy," and I will say that as I stood there shivering, I actually thought it was somewhat terrifying. If there can be beauty in terror, or vice versa, that was it. I've never seen it again and have not traveled to the places and times where and when it is most visible. I would like to, but even if I don't, I will always have the memory of that night and that terrifying, beautiful sight.
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One winter's night in the 1950's, growing up in Yonkers, my mother awakened me in the middle of the night to hurry outside with her. I threw on my coat and went outside into our suburban yard. And there they were, purple shimmering curtains of aurora borealis.
Until reading this I hadn't realized how rare it is to see it in lower latitudes. Yes, in Yonkers!
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1958, february something. fab!
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A friend and I decided we wanted to see the Northern Lights, so we investigated all the possibilities, from Yellowknife to Sweden. I had pushed for Yellowknife, but my friend thought Tromso, Norway, would be best because there are so many things to do there in addition to seeing the Lights. She was quite right.
We planned well, then flew New York-Oslo-Tromso. We rented a fabulous, inexpensive cabin on a beautiful lake about 40 minutes outside Tromso; arranged one night with a Lights Chase company; brought a tripod and a good camera; and arranged various daytime activities, including dogsledding (we got to drive the sleds ourselves for an hour!), a trip to a Sami reindeer complex to learn about Sami culture, feed the reindeer, and ride on a reindeer-drawn sleigh (all great).
Everything worked out perfectly. Tromso itself is extremely attractive, with lovely shops and restaurants, exhibitions, and a university with a wonderful museum. For our first two nights (clear), we set up the tripod on our dock, fixed all the camera settings, then waited for the Lights show, which flaunted bright veils of green (and a bit of red) for hours. It was a high point of my life, certainly.
On the last night there was a snow storm, but our Lights Chaser company scanned their instruments, found a clear window -- in Finland -- and drove us there. They set up our cameras, cooked us a delicious meal over a campfire, and served us drinks.
I'd give this experience an A+++++.
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These are exotic locations. Does anyone realize that one does not have to leave North America to view the Aurora? We see these shows frequently in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. So does Minnesota. Newfoundland. Labrador. Visit your own continent.
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Being from Alaska, I’ve seen them hundreds if not thousands of times before, they truly are an awesome spectacle that is one of those experiences that no picture or video HD or not, can adequately describe. It’s one of those things in nature that must be personally witnessed to understand the full majesty of nature.
They do crackle and move, you can almost feel the static electricity in the air, and when you understand what causes them it’s even more awe inspiring. When you understand it’s charged particles from the sun, that are speeding by the planet and how those particles interact with the magnetic field that luckily surrounds the earth.
It’s then the you realize how tiny, and insignificant we are, when compared to the awesome power of nature, and without the magnetic field that surrounds the earth, this planet would look a lot like Mars.
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I have seen purple displays in northern Minnesota
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I just hope the Aurora Borealis remains mystical as ever. I hope the Sami people remain Sami and not American Indians hustled into reservations put into cages for visitors' entertainment - into extinction! I hope the moose don't find themselves on the endangered list. And most important - I hope camera-toting tourists turn the aurora viewing villages into servitude, into 5 star hotels where you can view the aurora comfortably on toe warming radiators. And it is not faraway when a Carribean Cruise would take them to the point of viewing with a all-you-can-eat buffet!
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Just saw the Northern Lights in a Tromsø, Norway!
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I too have been fortunate enough to see the lights in person after a trip to Iceland for that purpose. Our tour had been canceled multiple times due to cloud cover before we were able to go out on our last night there. We drove around in the pitch black Icelandic countryside for hours, chasing possible sightings. Our bus was stuck in the mud at one point. At another time, I wandered all of five feet from the group and managed, in the total darkness, to trip over a chain strung up between two rocks, skin up my knees, and get a nice coat of cold mud on me. But after a few hours of this, freezing our rears off in the middle of the night, a light show more spectacular than I had even imagined started dancing across the sky. It was phenomenal! I actually teared up. Words don't do it justice but the quote in this article about "heavenly music" comes as close as anything I've read. It really must be seen to be felt.
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As a student at Syracuse University back in the late 1960's, I went outside one cold winter night and noticed an odd flashing in the sky. It took a few seconds to realize it was actually the aurora that I was viewing, a soft, light blue-green wave swaying in zigzag fashion. I tried to encourage a few of my sorority sisters to come out and look but they thought I was joking (or had been drinking). Only then did it occur to me that one of the local city shopping malls was called "Northern Lights" for a reason.
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My husband and I were on the first Viking Northern Lights cruise that began on Jan 13.. We did not see spectacular Northern Lights but it was not Viking's fault! The important facts: Don't go when the moon is full or cloud cover is expected. That covers a lot of time so be realistic in your expectations.. The trip was well worth it to us in spite of a couple of days of very rough seas - that is going to happen when you have to cross the Great North Sea in mid-winter..We saw a "smidge" of dark green light off of our room balcony - and Viking will make announcements in the middle of the night when that is happening - and there was a reported sighting on one of our excursions but it was so quick most did not see it. The naked eye does NOT usually show what you see in heavily digitized photos and your cell phone will not take good pictures of the lights.. We LOVED Norway - it was quite spectacular in January and we were never cold with our winter gear on...
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Wow! amazing
We've noticed many travelers from India are visiting the Northern Lights. Posts like these will boost the count.
Love from India <3
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We just got back last night from doing 2 small group tours to Iceland, our 18th and 19th tours over 5 years. This year, we had spectacular Northern Lights!
In viewing the Northern Lights, there are 3 factors. First of all, it has to be dark, away from the city lights. Secondly, there needs to be no cloud cover. Thirdly, there must be aurora activity.
In Iceland, we use a website https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ that shows cloud cover and aurora activity (you can figure it out on your own if it is dark outside). Aurora activity is ranked on a scale of 0 to 9. If it is a 4 or above, bingo! It is a good night to head out to hunt for the Northern Lights.
Steve
www.travelingprofessor.com
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Even though I lived in northern Sweden for several years and saw many fantastic auroras, especially when out on multi-day ski tours, the absolute best auroral display I ever saw was one winter night in Ithaca New York in 1987 I think. That year the aurora could be seen as far South as Dallas so if you’re lucky the aurora will come to you. And that one was primarily red, but large and full of dancing lights.
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I've not seen the lights, not yet. But in the mid-50's, my mother, alone in bed one night while my father traveled, saw a fiery glow in the southern sky and, due to the times, assumed the Russians were bombing D.C. How will I save my children, she wondered?
When he returned, my father (a WWII pilot) explained she'd seen the glow of Northern Lights. Only that once, as far as I know, as population growth and building booms helped change the night sky. How far we've come in the years since, from the daughter of a stargazer who didn't know of the Aurora Borealis to the tourist huts and expert knowledge of today.
And yet we still must worry whether some hostile country will indeed bomb Washington.
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I was lucky enough to experience the northern lights in Alaska at Denali National Park. I stood in freezing temperatures to experience a shimmering apple green curtain dance across the night sky. It was a lifetime experience I will never forget. It will stay with me forever. I tell everyone, it’s nature’s treat at its best.
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I’ve seen the southern lights from the mid north coast town of Kendall, NSW. While our southern lights are less well known my experience of them, before the time of mobile phones or digital cameras was simply awesome. I still remember the surprising red glow late at night, feeling terrified that the nearby forest was on fire. I stayed and watched a good half hour entranced and awed in equal doses. I hope to see the northern lights eventually but hold out hope of seeing Aurora Australis a second time.
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When I was a child in New York my mother used to wake us up in the wee hours to see the northern lights. The next door neighbors were also outside watching. They didn't look like the photos in this article but they were gorgeous. We lived in the north shore of Long Island and I still do not know how we could see these events so far south. It happened a few nights and then my mother ceased to see them or decided we needed our sleep for school the next day. I really need to research this.
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The most impressive Northern lights I've seen were in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada in the early fall. I'm guessing 2005 - 2007 time frame. I was camping in a remote campground and was sleeping in a tent and awoke sometime during the night. I thought there was a forest fire. The sides of the tent seemed to be on fire and pulsing. When I got out of the tent I was just plain open-mouth astonished. I enjoyed an hour long show the likes of which I have never seen again...not even in film documentaries. I was in Riding Mountain again 2 years ago and saw a mere flicker of what I had seen earlier. A group of friends and I are heading to Iceland in early 2021 for my 60th. I'm hoping luck will be on our side.
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Great article, thanks! I've been lucky enough to see the aurora a couple times in Northern Vermont. Not as dependable here as above the arctic circle. Definitely a bucket list item to get to Iceland, Alaska or Lapland to see full display!
Some great resources for seeing people's aurora images on Twitter:
@ADphotography24 - in Norway
@SussanSays - Tasmania
@dartanner - Yellowknife
And for info on aurora
@northlightalert - Northern Lights Now
@TamithaSkov - Space weather scientist
@NWSSWPC - Space Weather prediction center
Enjoy!
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Viewing tip. Schedule your visit for a time of a new moon.
We went to Whitehorse and the lights were fantastic but it was during a full moon so we didn't get the best experience. Still amazing though.
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When i was kid i spent my summers in les Hautes-Laurentides about 200 km North of Montréal. It was common to see aurora borealis and catch speckel trouts until the mid 60's.
Then they were no more. The Rust Belt pollution took it away.
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Seen the lights up in Alaska. It was on my bucket list and did not disappoint.
Growing up in northern Ontario, I would see the Northern Lights, while walking home from friends home's across town. The magnificent colours,with the light dancing overhead would make a -35°c walk on a cold winter's night a thing of beauty. I certainly didn't understand the science, though I did know what I was experiencing. What I came to realize having moved away from the north, is just how lucky I was to have these experiences, as they are now only in my memories. I yearn to feel them again. Like Orion overhead, the Northern Lights were fixtures that instilled a love of the night skies that live today. See them if you can, sit with them and enjoy the greatest show on earth.
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I never appreciated the beauty of the aurora until I served a temporary duty tour at Eielson AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska. They are magnificent. An item everyone should have on their bucket list.
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In January 2018 we spent 4 nights at the STF Abisko Fjallstation on our bucket trip to see the aurora. We had spent the previous 4 nights in a lodge in Iceland where we did not see the lights, just lots of snowy sky. We went out each night in Abisko on a sled tour over the frozen lake. The first two nights it was just the dusky lights that only show up on camera, but on the 3d and 4th nights the sky lit up from horizon to horizon with a spectacular, overwhelming display of green light not just visible to the naked eye, but unavoidable, brilliant, and truly overhwelming. To the naked eye, it looked just like the photos in this article. The show went on for almost an hour. Afterwards, back at the lodge, the guides from Lights over Lapland told us that that night was in the top 5 of what they had seen in the previous 10 years. So, please do not be put off by people saying you don’t see much with just the naked eye, because that is not always the case.
As for the STF Abisko Fjallstation, we can heartily recommend it. It does have an air of being a hostel, but it’s a grade or two above that, with an amazing restaurant that serves an outstanding breakfast buffet of traditional swedish favorites as lingonberry jam and sauce, meats, fish, cheese, and terrific baked breads. Dinners were slightly more formal (dress code always very very casual) and unbelieveably good. Otoh, it was -4 degrees Farenheit the whole time, and spending 4 hours outside waiting for the light show was brutal.
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I've been out with these guys in Abisko and it was wonderful. Got clear skies 2 out of 4 nights and it was as special as you would hope!
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we saw the northern lights on an airplane a couple of years ago. The WOW Airlines pilot told us that he was turning off the outside navigation lights and everybody should look to the left of the plane. Indeed they were out there in a beautiful display. But I was worried about everybody being on one side of the plane: would it tip over like a boat?
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My wife and I took a memorable cruise with Hurtigruten to see the Northern Lights. We chose a cruise with an astronomer on board, who gave fascinating lectures and joined us out on the deck each night in search of the lights. The food (including lots of locally caught fish) was delicious, the crew was fantastic, and the lights danced in the sky on three nights--pure magic! BUT, as some other commenters have pointed out, the human eye's capability for detecting colors at night is limited, so the light show looked nothing like in the photographs. I'm still really glad I went--and I'd like to do it again!--but writers and photographers should avoid setting false expectations.
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So looking forward to seeing the Northern Lights someday! Sounds otherworldly. There's still a lot of of awe-inspiring moments out in the world if we take the time to see them. Don't think I'd spend too much of my time snapping photos of the Lights though, seems like a distraction from just absorbing the moment and almost assuredly someone else will have taken a better photo than I.
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Northern lights are creepy. I never liked them.
Don't like sea creatures either.
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Most of us grew up going to the beach during the summer. That gets old after 50-60 years. I now go north, up to Quebec, even during winter. I snowshoe, cross country ski, and shovel a lot of snow. One unmet goal is to see the lights, which I've never seen. I need to go further north, or pay closer attention to those apps which predict the lights viability in my area. I have the right warm clothes, and also the time. I just need the lights!
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I was fortunate two years ago to have seen hours of an Aurora storm in which the Aurora is as turbulent as the ocean and displays bold colors (though a green Aurora is also spectacular when writhing). It is worth a special trip. In researching Auroras and making my trip, I found late September as promising as (and much warmer than) January to March. Although an Aurora fills a good part of the sky, it requires scanning to follow the most active areas.
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Ten years ago I found myself in Iceland hoping to see the aurora. We were deep in the countryside well past midnight, braving subzero cold, and couldn’t see anything with our naked eyes.
We were expecting to see something as we had been monitoring the solar weather. What our naked eyes couldn’t see, my SLR captured with 15-30 second exposures of the dark horizon - there it was, a green cloud over the mountainous horizon.
That was good enough for that trip. Still hope to see it with my naked eyes one day.
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@Luis
Also, it pays to:
1 - watch/subscribe to this institute to get some notice of when to expect auroral activity:
https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast
2 - be a spontaneous traveler given the short notice
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The northern lights are certainly spectacular, but remember that most of the photographs that you see of them are made with long time exposures. The colors and the intensity are seldom that bright when seen with the naked eye. Another trick photographers use is to leave the shutter open to capture the northern lights and then add a quick flash to illuminate objects in the foreground.
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@Randy yes, some Northern Lights are better in camera, but some are far more spectacular in person. They're fast moving and unpredictable and vibrant.
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In all my travels, I think viewing the aurora provided the most magical and memorable experience. I spent parts of two winters above the Arctic Circle in Norway long ago and we saw them frequently, spiraling, shimmering in curtains and shooting rays from points in the sky. Some viewers claim you can hear them too as a faint hiss in the sky. I can't vouch for that personally and researchers scoff but it wouldn't surprise me. I live in Northern Minnesota and we frequently see them here too and once, while some friends and I were in a sauna near the Canadian border, they appeared overhead in a spectacular display. We ran outside and stood naked on the lake ice, oblivious to the sub-zero cold and utterly enchanted by the celestial fireworks overhead.
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I’ve been lucky enough to see the aurora borealis twice, once when I lived in Alaska. But the second time while less stunning was by virtue of rarity more amazing: I saw it one very dark night in rural Northern New Mexico. I attributed the viewing to the high altitude (6,000 feet) and low humidity, which create a clarity you don’t find at lower altitudes, and the renowned dark skies here.
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Thank you for the wonderful, entertaining and informative article. The many photos were spectacular, heartwarming, and just plain cool. I love the candid pix of the moose in Abisko National Park. Such an awesome expression.
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I've never been to Finland or Sweden in winter to search for the northern lights, but I did see them once by chance--and it was in Missouri, in July. A friend and I were teenagers hitching at night from Sioux City in Iowa to Nashville and we got picked up by this poor guy whose father-in-law had just forbidden him from seeing his wife because he was broke. All he had to his name was a beat-up station wagon and a gallon wine jug full of nickels, dimes and quarters. He fell asleep at the wheel as we were going up a freeway ramp--my friend suddenly noticed that the ramp was only half completed and stomped on the brakes before we went off the end. Anyway, after that near miss we saw the sky start to shimmer and turn green. It stayed like that for a couple of hours. That was a long time ago. I've always wondered whether the guy ever found his feet again and got back together with his wife. And if you happen to see this, thanks for the ride.
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Two years ago in early January, I stayed at Torassieppi Raindeer farm and cottages on Torassieppi lake in Finland, just east of Kiruna. We stayed a week and when it was clear, about half the time, we had very good aurora coming straight down on us. They supplied the cold weather gear so we could stand out on the lake and watch the show. The place is run by Harriniva out of Muonio, Finland. They had plenty to do there, like dog-sledding, including an overnight to a little house in the woods about 35 kilometers away, a raindeer farm and short sleigh rides and cooking reindeer burgers or pancakes in a kota. They also had a small ice hotel, and a few miles away, a large regular hotel with a smoke sauna with a small lake with an area was kept ice free and stairs to let you down into the water for your bathing pleasure after the sauna. Their business is mostly British tours, but you can book as an independent. It's not cheap, but it's a lot of unusual and fun things to do.
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I worked in Kiruna Sweden and saw the Aurora there. It is the most northern large town in Sweden with full service, not far from Abisko and the Ice Hotel. I worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Kiruna township, which one could also visit, if one likes that sort of thing. Locals joked about tourists who wanted to see the Aurora and the Midnight Sun on the same trip.
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Interestingly, when I saw the green bright northern lights in Iceland, my wife could only see gray cloud like structures. Also, stupidly I didn't research how to take good pictures so came away with basically nothing other than my memories
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My wife and I went to Tromso, Norway in February 2016 and we booked a couple different tours to see the northern lights. We had to travel all the way to the Finland border for the first tour and the lights were okay. The second trip was much closer Tromso and the light show was stunning. Point being, book at least two tours because you may not get a great show the first time out!
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You do not need to go as far as Sweden. I have seen innumerable and wondrous displays on dark summer nights in northern Wisconsin.
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@Jean claude the damned - Very true. I've seen them from a mountain in New Hampshire, a motel parking lot in Minnesota, and amazingly in Chicago - a display that was so bright it overpowered the background city lights.
However, these southerly displays are unpredictable and rare, which is why tourists planning and paying for an aurora-admiring trip choose destinations farther north like Alaska, Iceland, and Sweden.
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Stay at home and watch the auroras--anywhere in the north of the US or in Europe--during the winter on certain nights.
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I believe you can see aurora borealis in North Dakota also.
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Absolutely beautiful photos! Thank you.
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Thanks for this great article.
I saw Northern Lights for the first time during a trip to photograph Greenland's landscape at night for a grant.
While camping near a glacier, which lead to the 2,000 mile ice sheet, I saw the green lights dancing right above me--this was both magical and terrifying. The show of light was a strangely chilling event to watch at 2am alone. I won't forget it.
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i've been to yellowknife in the northwest territories of canada twice and seen the aurora both times.
my japanese wife felt at home with many of her compatriots visiting at the same time.
we stayed at a hotel owned by japanese with a japanese restaurant and another like a roadhouse.
the sky was a brilliant mauve and green.
shimmering and gently moving like curtains by an open window in summer.
we drove well outside the city, got out of our rental to gaze up. we were aware of another presence after a few minutes and spotted a lone wolf about 50 steps away.
my wife hid behind me ('he knows i'm the weakest', was her explanation).
he wandered away after a few minutes.
i'd read yellowknife was the best place--in terms of a populated area--to view the lights.
not because they're more brilliant, but because the skies are clear more often.
as awesome as it was, the milky way fills me with more wonder.
five trips to the south island NZ, with four from the relative closeness of japan, were gobsmacking.
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I spent almost a month in Fairbanks, Alaska several years ago in March. In all my travels, I've never seen anything more stunning than the northern lights. I love the photos in this article. Makes me want to brave the cold to see them in person again.
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Last October, in a thermal suit, drinking cocoa in the Arctic night and not yet sure whether the lights would show it seemed worth it just to be there in the hunt. That they did show and exceeded expectations: not something I have the words to describe.
7
My wife and I traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska a few winters ago and had a great trip that included seeing a spectacular aurora display from a high ridge above Chena Hot Springs Lodge, where we stayed. We also enjoyed a dog sled ride, a good restaurant, and of course soaking in the famous hot springs. But I must comment that the brightly colored photographs like those included in this article are the result of many-seconds long exposures with high-end cameras mounted on tripods. What you see with the naked eye is beautiful, stunning, worthy of your bucket list. But the colors are subtle, very different from what the camera can record. That said, Go! You will be in the company of many photographers who will happily share their pictures with you.
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Took my bucket list trip in February/March of 2014. The auroral display was indescribably beautiful coming driving back to Fairbanks, Alaska from above the Arctic Circle.
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The aurora is beautiful and a site to behold. My family visited Abisko in January and was fortunate to see a spectacular show. We do not understand, however, why writers do not explain that the colors are generally not as vivid to the naked eye. What we saw through digital lenses was wildly different than what we actually saw without the aid of a camera. In one instance the camera showed the now well-known bright green and an area of red. Through the naked eye, while we saw a faint green hue (more likely than not because we knew it was supposed to be), it was by no means what the camera was capturing. There was not even a hint of the red. It is an incredible show of nature, but one that should also be honestly conveyed as to the true site most are likely to witness.
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@Kerri Freese
It's difficult to compare auroral pictures with actually seeing them, because by their nature nighttime photographs require long shutter times. And, more
recently, it does seem like a lot of aurora pictures are
subtly (or not) photoshopped to increase the 'drama factor'. These pictures are also almost always taken on very clear, moonless nights. Lots of factors influence
view-ability -- a slight haze, moonlight, sheer luck in looking up at the right time as the aurora can appear and disappear pretty quickly, etc. The best visual representations I've seen are those done by accomplished watercolor artists, in particular by Fairbanks' own Vladimir Zhikartsev. His renderings of the aurora very closely resemble the Real Thing. (It is possible to see pink and other hues when they are bright, although white and green are more common).
There is no substitute for actually watching an active aurora rippling across the sky and hopefully many readers will have that opportunity sometime !
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