Aurora Borealis

[jimbo]

In January my beloved wife will turn 40. For her birthday she wants to see the northern lights. I've found the odd tour to Norway, but I’d sure appreciate any advice. Can I find out predicted sun spot activity in advance? Anyone got any recommendations?

cheers,
Jimbo

 

[Tsiklonaut]

Relatively predictable stuff. 'Liv,Norway' here probably can give you an Sun's magnetic activity obs web page where they predict when/where it (very probably) happends in Norway.



Happends here in Estonia sometimes, with rapid temperature drop and Sun's active phase, these pics taken directly from my window and garden:

 

[timeandtide]

Fantastic pictures!

 

[Mick O'Malley]

Jimbo

This is where I look. You have to be lucky this far south though. There are a few "aurora flight" firms that advertise in the travel sections of the broadsheets. I expect they have websites too.

Regards, Mick

 

[Hunda]

My Girlfriend wanted to see them by the time she was 40. Saw them in Shetland the day before her Birthday last month. Only saw them because we came outside the pub to have a cigarette due to the Scottish smoking ban! I was told by someone from Orkney we were lucky this time as the sun is not good at the moment - how true that is I don't know.

 

[LivNorway]

A time table for Aurora Borealis....

...I can not give you. But does a Arora Borealis Forecast help?
I called an expert, and he told me they (his colleagues) can tell the possibility for seeing it 2-3 days in advance.
Some links for you:
http://www.spaceweathercenter.org/stormalert/04/04.html
''Forecast''.

http://www.spaceweathercenter.org/our_protective_shield/04/04.html


http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/
Showing the activity right now.

http://geo.phys.uit.no/
Tromsø.

http://haldde.unis.no/
Svalbard.

I have seen it only a few times from Oslo, but not as beatiful as those pictures, so the odds are not that good here.
I guess the best place in Norway must be far north, like Troms and Finnmark (Alta, Tromsø, Hammerfest?).
Far north = no sun at all in the winter. And if you are far from a village there are no lights at all - no wonder why they love it when they can see Aurora Borealis, then!

I have been to Finnmark; Kirkenes, Tana, Varangerbotn, Vadsø and Vardø:
The nature is not at all like Lofoten - it's flat, no peaks in sight.
So if you really want to go up there once in your life, but have trouble to decide winter or summer; why not winter? I'm sure you have seen the sun almost like the midnight sun, but not Aurora Borealis, and the nature is not that interresting, so it does not matter it's dark most of the time. (They do not see the sun, but it gets a little less dark in the middle of the day.)
Put wool next to your skin (soft wool) and more wool, and one more layer of wool, really good boots (socks made of wool!), scarf, and some wool on your head, and go up there in the winter!
Take the boat Hurtigruta and see North Cape from the sea, and hope for Aurora Borealis!
And I guarantee no mosquitoes!

Far south they call it Aurora Australis = southern lights.
Northern lights = Nordlys in Norwegian - and that is the name of a newspaper too.

I hope I helped.

Liv.

 

[AndyT]

My Dentist has just come back from the Norwegian Coastal voyage and when "Up North" said that the northen lights were truley spectacular. He enjoyed the cruise too???

 

[RadioActive]

I lived near Fraserburgh NE Scotland for three years and also worked on the Shetlands and saw a few good displays but oddly enough the best I've seen was from here near Bedford about four years ago. Absolutely amazing and going way overhead. I always expect some sort of noise to go with it! You can also bounce radio signals off the ionised region if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[-Ali-]

this summer we'll be going through from norway and northern russia. Is there any chance of seeing them then?

 

[Keith Chapman]

I was lucky on a trip to Finland, staying way inside the arctic circle(February a couple of years ago), managed to see the the aurora 4 nights out of 5.

I know people who have been on organised cruises to see the northern lights and not seen a thing, unfortunately you just cant tell, you are either lucky or you are not.
there is lots of info on the internet for taking photos of the lights, The plastic mounts on my tripod did not like -20c and the cold kills camera batteries quickly. but 12 yearold Jamesons keeps your internals warm

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

i don't think they come this far south

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Saw them four years ago in sunny Nottingham one night after coming out of a mates garage after helping him strip his GSXR lump..........


..........really freked the sh1t out of us 'till we found out a few days later that it had been a display of the OB - looked to us like some weird sort of multicoloured searchlighlights!

Would LOVE to go 'north' and see them for real

Andres

 

[Skippy]

Saw them four years ago in sunny Nottingham one night after coming out of a mates garage after helping him strip his GSXR lump..........


..........really freked the sh1t out of us 'till we found out a few days later that it had been a display of the OB - looked to us like some weird sort of multicoloured searchlighlights!

Would LOVE to go 'north' and see them for real

Andres

:spl1f :drinkinpa

 

[LivNorway]

Iv'e been thinking...
If you go over here in February, and go up to the north, hoping to see the Aurora Borealis -why not do that a few days before Rally Norway at Hamar?
That way you are going to see something interresting no matter if the Aurora Borealis shows up or not!
But please sit down when you find out what you have to pay for the ticket for the airplane Gardermoen (Oslo) - someplace-up-north (Tromsø, Kirkenes?)! This is going to cost you a lot!

Well, here's some links for you:

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/05072006/29/rally-norway-celebrates.html
Rally in Norway!

http://www.northern-lights.no/

http://www.lillehammerturist.no/deutsch/webcams.htm
Timetable for the sun, how cold is it up here, how much snow do we get - average.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikingskipet_Olympic_Arena
Rally Norway are going to use the Vikingskipet at Hamar, and here are some facts about the ''ship''.

http://www.rallynorway.com/en/news/ss_by_ss_2007.html
Rally in Norway in February at Hamar!

http://www.visitnorway.com/templates/NTRarticle.aspx?id=28481
If you want to know when the see mindight sun...

Let me know if you go over here!

Liv.

 

[LivNorway]

A new and good movie for you!
http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.7395240

Liv.

 

[GunZenBomZ]

From here..

http://spaceweather.com/

Good link

http://www.arcticpathfinder.no/

Ow that wasn't the link I ment..

http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01nov10_page2.htm?PHPSESSID=8bjsom95mrtmebqlc63aia9n46

Would love to come over & visit Liv

 

[Zorro]

late reply...

a late reply...
i did the same for my wife's birthday
we went to the ice hotel in kiruna
aim for the new moon - no light 'pollution'
midnight on snow bikes to great viewing spot - absolutely fantastic
and got me lots of brownie points...

In January my beloved wife will turn 40. For her birthday she wants to see the northern lights. I've found the odd tour to Norway, but I’d sure appreciate any advice. Can I find out predicted sun spot activity in advance? Anyone got any recommendations?

cheers,
Jimbo

 

[Farmer Palmer]

Saw the Northern Lights in Hofn, in Iceland november 2008 and they were fantastic above the snow and Vatnajokull icecap.

I was asking some Icelanders if they ever got tired of watching them and they all said no, everytime the northern lights appeared it was special.

We sometimes see them here in Berwickshire where there isn't much light polllution so i'll need to watch out for them again.

FP.

 

[LivNorway]

From here..

http://spaceweather.com/

Good link

http://www.arcticpathfinder.no/

Ow that wasn't the link I ment..

http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01nov10_page2.htm?PHPSESSID=8bjsom95mrtmebqlc63aia9n46

Would love to come over & visit Liv

Pop over, then!

Tell me where&when I'll help you find a nice place to stay.

Liv.