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Evening everybody...this one is a tough assignment.
Have a friend who has just got the all clear from cancer. In a bucket-list moment he has decided that he would like to see the Northern lights in all their spectacular glory. Not so simple I told him, there are several factors to consider from Solar maximum to local weather,ambient temperature, polar bears...and the rest!!
He wants to take a short break (~ about a week in the new year) and would like to be as good a position as anywhere to see the aurora providing the Sun is co-operative and releases a few coronal mass ejections when needed.
Is there a place that is recommended above all others for clear weather, access and good viewing?
Here's hoping that UKC knows something that the rest of the World doesn't.
Many thanks in advance.
SBC.
Have a friend who has just got the all clear from cancer. In a bucket-list moment he has decided that he would like to see the Northern lights in all their spectacular glory. Not so simple I told him, there are several factors to consider from Solar maximum to local weather,ambient temperature, polar bears...and the rest!!
He wants to take a short break (~ about a week in the new year) and would like to be as good a position as anywhere to see the aurora providing the Sun is co-operative and releases a few coronal mass ejections when needed.
Is there a place that is recommended above all others for clear weather, access and good viewing?
Here's hoping that UKC knows something that the rest of the World doesn't.
Many thanks in advance.
SBC.
In reply to sbc_10:
My wife and I took my mum to see the Northern Lights last New Year. It's been a lifelong ambition of hers to see them. We went to Tromso for five nights and didn't really end up seeing them. It is one of the best places to see them in Europe, but unfortunately we were unlucky.
My wife and I took my mum to see the Northern Lights last New Year. It's been a lifelong ambition of hers to see them. We went to Tromso for five nights and didn't really end up seeing them. It is one of the best places to see them in Europe, but unfortunately we were unlucky.
In reply to sbc_10:
I went to Northern Finland for a week in February, but only saw them once for about a 10 min display. Fantastic! But it is a matter of pot luck, there are no gurantees.
You will increase your chances if you go when the moon is new rather than full - less light pollution.
I think the trick is to go somewhere where there are other things to do if you don't see them Eg Skiing, x-country skiing and/or snow shooing, dog sleighing, skidoos etc etc so you a least get a holiday to enjoy if you don't see them
Tip - if you get tempted by sleeping in an Ice Hotel it's bloody expensive and the experience is really no different from DIY in a snow hole which will cost you nothing!
I went to Northern Finland for a week in February, but only saw them once for about a 10 min display. Fantastic! But it is a matter of pot luck, there are no gurantees.
You will increase your chances if you go when the moon is new rather than full - less light pollution.
I think the trick is to go somewhere where there are other things to do if you don't see them Eg Skiing, x-country skiing and/or snow shooing, dog sleighing, skidoos etc etc so you a least get a holiday to enjoy if you don't see them
Tip - if you get tempted by sleeping in an Ice Hotel it's bloody expensive and the experience is really no different from DIY in a snow hole which will cost you nothing!
We went to Norway a couple of years ago and was lucky to see it for about 6 nights out of 12 but this was in the peak of the solar activity, which I believe comes round roughly every 10 years. It is certainly not unusual to hear people going away for 3+ weeks and not seeing anything.
If you click on the below link, then basically the closer you can get to the 2 bands then the better the light show will be, I can recommend Alta and Tromso but anywhere with good clear weather, no light pollution and most importantly high solar activity will do
http://www.passportdiary.com/images/northern-lights-map.jpg
Trangia gives good advice in that you need to visit somewhere with other things to do. By all means go hunting at night, but you need a lot of luck on your side so you need to enjoy the other aspects of your trip.
If you click on the below link, then basically the closer you can get to the 2 bands then the better the light show will be, I can recommend Alta and Tromso but anywhere with good clear weather, no light pollution and most importantly high solar activity will do
http://www.passportdiary.com/images/northern-lights-map.jpg
Trangia gives good advice in that you need to visit somewhere with other things to do. By all means go hunting at night, but you need a lot of luck on your side so you need to enjoy the other aspects of your trip.
In reply to sbc_10:
An aeroplane? I think one or two airlines (Icelandair?) run flights to see the northern lights. At least it'll guarantee you'll get above the clouds.
An aeroplane? I think one or two airlines (Icelandair?) run flights to see the northern lights. At least it'll guarantee you'll get above the clouds.
In reply to Chalk:
Thanks Rubisco: Yes, luck is vital. Some people think they are switched on like the Blackpool Illuminations! Tromso could be a good recommendation.
Thanks Trangia: Yes, Full Moon is another variable to be factored in. He will need a database to pluck out a favorable time. You are correct with the alternative activities. Sod's law will have it that he will be partaking in some drunken Finnish reindeer charming event when the heavens light up.
Don't think his misssus will kip in anything less than 4.5 stars and less than +22'C though.
Sean.
Thanks Chalk: The map show Iceland as well to be in a good location. Thanks for this.
Cheers everybody. I will pass on your thoughts and ideas.
Thanks Rubisco: Yes, luck is vital. Some people think they are switched on like the Blackpool Illuminations! Tromso could be a good recommendation.
Thanks Trangia: Yes, Full Moon is another variable to be factored in. He will need a database to pluck out a favorable time. You are correct with the alternative activities. Sod's law will have it that he will be partaking in some drunken Finnish reindeer charming event when the heavens light up.
Don't think his misssus will kip in anything less than 4.5 stars and less than +22'C though.
Sean.
Thanks Chalk: The map show Iceland as well to be in a good location. Thanks for this.
Cheers everybody. I will pass on your thoughts and ideas.
In reply to sbc_10:
Iceland is good and you can sit in the Blue Lagoon and watch them, which would be wonderful.
Cloudy the whole time when we went
Iceland is good and you can sit in the Blue Lagoon and watch them, which would be wonderful.
Cloudy the whole time when we went
In reply to Tom Last:
Cheers Tom, I did a quick google and found this
http://www.auroraflights.co.uk/
This image was taken from a flight from Doncaster...not the most obvious Arctic Auroral base station, but it's the real deal nonetheless.
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/auroraflights/S13/20130313_DON.html
I am quite tempted myself!
Thanks
Cheers Tom, I did a quick google and found this
http://www.auroraflights.co.uk/
This image was taken from a flight from Doncaster...not the most obvious Arctic Auroral base station, but it's the real deal nonetheless.
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/auroraflights/S13/20130313_DON.html
I am quite tempted myself!
Thanks
In reply to Tom Last:
I've seen both Borealis and Australis, but never an epic display, usually a shifting smudge of green. The times when I have been in Iceland or Northern Norway has usually coincided with full Summer conditions and hence 24 hour light. Look at this
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58053000/jpg/_58053252_e51b1ef8-0f61-...
....Tan Hill Inn. You don't have to go too far if the conditions are right.
Here's hoping.
I've seen both Borealis and Australis, but never an epic display, usually a shifting smudge of green. The times when I have been in Iceland or Northern Norway has usually coincided with full Summer conditions and hence 24 hour light. Look at this
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58053000/jpg/_58053252_e51b1ef8-0f61-...
....Tan Hill Inn. You don't have to go too far if the conditions are right.
Here's hoping.
In reply to Tom Last:
One can quite often see the Northern Lights on flights from North America at this time of year. I didn't see them a couple of weeks ago, but at the same time a year ago the plane seemed to be more or less surrounded by them - a strange optical illusion - for several hours. This was over the North Atlantic, somewhat south of Greenland and Iceland.
One can quite often see the Northern Lights on flights from North America at this time of year. I didn't see them a couple of weeks ago, but at the same time a year ago the plane seemed to be more or less surrounded by them - a strange optical illusion - for several hours. This was over the North Atlantic, somewhat south of Greenland and Iceland.
In reply to sbc_10:
I did seven winters in northern Norway, few trips to Sweden, and I saw the lights about 3 or 4 years out of that, sometimes nothing. Canada I remember on a bivi my mate waking me up going simmo man look at the sky, and I'm like go back to sleep dude it's just the northern lights, I know I took the world for granted back then.
They say right now the sun is going through a pole shift and were getting bombarded with the suns entropy reversal so this winter could be a classic, just got to think positive and all that and truly believe in synchronicity and you'll see the lights for sure
I did seven winters in northern Norway, few trips to Sweden, and I saw the lights about 3 or 4 years out of that, sometimes nothing. Canada I remember on a bivi my mate waking me up going simmo man look at the sky, and I'm like go back to sleep dude it's just the northern lights, I know I took the world for granted back then.
They say right now the sun is going through a pole shift and were getting bombarded with the suns entropy reversal so this winter could be a classic, just got to think positive and all that and truly believe in synchronicity and you'll see the lights for sure
Post edited at 16:55
In reply to sbc_10:
Aabisko is good. Went and saw the lights a few years back. Guys at work do research there so easy to arrange. Fly into norway , hire a car and drive over. Stay at the mountain lodge. Much cheaper than arranged tours (but still pricey). Snowy the first day, clear the second. Went up the hill on a chair lift, full moon but could still see the lights which were amazing. Got the hot aches trying to take pictures without gloves on, proposed, was accepted, then fiance pulled a filling out trying to pull gloves on with teeth. I spent the night throwing up because of a dodgy mussel. Magical experience.
Watch troll hunter before you go.
Aabisko is good. Went and saw the lights a few years back. Guys at work do research there so easy to arrange. Fly into norway , hire a car and drive over. Stay at the mountain lodge. Much cheaper than arranged tours (but still pricey). Snowy the first day, clear the second. Went up the hill on a chair lift, full moon but could still see the lights which were amazing. Got the hot aches trying to take pictures without gloves on, proposed, was accepted, then fiance pulled a filling out trying to pull gloves on with teeth. I spent the night throwing up because of a dodgy mussel. Magical experience.
Watch troll hunter before you go.
In reply to Ste Brom:
That is very handy indeed. There is an observation 'horizon' on the forecasts. Looks like we need a level 5 event to see the lights in Yorkshire.
The tip of Scotland comes into auroral 'nick' more often than I thought.
That is very handy indeed. There is an observation 'horizon' on the forecasts. Looks like we need a level 5 event to see the lights in Yorkshire.
The tip of Scotland comes into auroral 'nick' more often than I thought.
In reply to John Stainforth:
It may not be exactly the right term, maybe more of Barnsley slang for something which I don't have the voclauary to explain, so more of an explanation would be:
Last year I read, Cycles of Time, What happened before the big bang, Roger Penrose's Theory in Cosmology, and if I remember correctly straight away he goes quite deeply into the second law of thermodynamics before it gets going, and he talks along the lines of the entropy of systems always getting more and more complex due to the how we observe the linear nature of the passage of time, which he uses as an example of an egg rolling off the table and the fractures in the shell and how this is the increase in entropy or disorder.
Basically what I could understand was the complex systems on earth are always increasing in entropy; However the only thing which reverses this is the massive amount of energy which the planet absorbs from the sun which what I seemed to understand is what gives life, Our Sun or perhaps God the giver of life, How plants form, how we grow from a spark, from nothing.
If that makes any sense. I've read as much as I can on the subject which is very little really and I'm a real novice but all it seems to say to me is as advanced as physics gets it's still only circles and triangles.
It may not be exactly the right term, maybe more of Barnsley slang for something which I don't have the voclauary to explain, so more of an explanation would be:
Last year I read, Cycles of Time, What happened before the big bang, Roger Penrose's Theory in Cosmology, and if I remember correctly straight away he goes quite deeply into the second law of thermodynamics before it gets going, and he talks along the lines of the entropy of systems always getting more and more complex due to the how we observe the linear nature of the passage of time, which he uses as an example of an egg rolling off the table and the fractures in the shell and how this is the increase in entropy or disorder.
Basically what I could understand was the complex systems on earth are always increasing in entropy; However the only thing which reverses this is the massive amount of energy which the planet absorbs from the sun which what I seemed to understand is what gives life, Our Sun or perhaps God the giver of life, How plants form, how we grow from a spark, from nothing.
If that makes any sense. I've read as much as I can on the subject which is very little really and I'm a real novice but all it seems to say to me is as advanced as physics gets it's still only circles and triangles.
In reply to John Stainforth:
just tried to edit my typos and forum software gave error message something like "cannot update your message is too large", wick'd innit
just tried to edit my typos and forum software gave error message something like "cannot update your message is too large", wick'd innit
In reply to hang_about:
I know how you feel. I've swallowed some dodgy mussels in my time.
> I spent the night throwing up because of a dodgy mussel. Magical experience.
I know how you feel. I've swallowed some dodgy mussels in my time.
In reply to sbc_10:
apologies for the slight hijack and tenuous link from the northern lights to a post rock bands tune about the northern lights but for anyone who loves music I don't think the link above sounds right without the full context of the album.
youtube.com/watch?v=Sj03uynm-xs&
to me this is as classical as it ever gets.
apologies for the slight hijack and tenuous link from the northern lights to a post rock bands tune about the northern lights but for anyone who loves music I don't think the link above sounds right without the full context of the album.
youtube.com/watch?v=Sj03uynm-xs&
to me this is as classical as it ever gets.
In reply to johnj:
No worries John, it's a musical <bump> for the thread.
As with the reference to Roger Penrose, have you ever read "The Emperor's new Mind."....I tried and lost,several times... but I am glad people are still bold enough to think like that.
No worries John, it's a musical <bump> for the thread.
As with the reference to Roger Penrose, have you ever read "The Emperor's new Mind."....I tried and lost,several times... but I am glad people are still bold enough to think like that.
In reply to sbc_10:
No, I haven't I try and read a heavy book every year if I can, I'll have a look at that next year maybe.
No, I haven't I try and read a heavy book every year if I can, I'll have a look at that next year maybe.
In reply to johnj:
Be warned, it is along the lines of Principia Mathematica in it's logical viewpoint. I could not sustain the concentration required to verify each symbolic step, and so I shamefully abandoned the challenge and stole away to eat a real and finite number of Jaffa cakes.
Be warned, it is along the lines of Principia Mathematica in it's logical viewpoint. I could not sustain the concentration required to verify each symbolic step, and so I shamefully abandoned the challenge and stole away to eat a real and finite number of Jaffa cakes.
In reply to Ste Brom:
this is what u should have posted!
http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/
this is what u should have posted!
http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/
In reply to sbc_10:
The peak in the sunspot cycle that is thought to be important for the northern lights is about now. We have just been to Iceland and managed to see them three nights running http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_db/11196122054/
The peak in the sunspot cycle that is thought to be important for the northern lights is about now. We have just been to Iceland and managed to see them three nights running http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_db/11196122054/
In reply to sbc_10:
I've just had a message of my climbing partner who's doing another winter up at Spitsbergen, he said:
"it's like groundhog day up here still cold and it's 24 hour darkness lol I seen northern lights really good this time so been a worthwhile trip"
I've just had a message of my climbing partner who's doing another winter up at Spitsbergen, he said:
"it's like groundhog day up here still cold and it's 24 hour darkness lol I seen northern lights really good this time so been a worthwhile trip"
In reply to johnj:
That was a warning more than a tip: before you buy Penrose's Road to Reality, go to the last paragraph of Ch.10 (on p. 196 in my edition), and see if it is your cup of tea.
That was a warning more than a tip: before you buy Penrose's Road to Reality, go to the last paragraph of Ch.10 (on p. 196 in my edition), and see if it is your cup of tea.
In reply to John Stainforth:
So you definitely think its heavier than the Emperor's New Mind John?
> That was a warning more than a tip: before you buy Penrose's Road to Reality, go to the last paragraph of Ch.10 (on p. 196 in my edition), and see if it is your cup of tea.
So you definitely think its heavier than the Emperor's New Mind John?
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