i want to see the northern lights
- Thread starter wayward bob
- Start date
ruffneck23
front left
Im just looking at a weekend break in Iceland with a Northern lights excursion included, but it's pretty expensive, especially if you want to include whale watching.
Anyone know of a more budget way to do it?
Anyone know of a more budget way to do it?
dessiato
🇪🇸 my spirit is crying for leaving
Have you thought of Northern Scotland? Friends from Spain did this a few weeks ago.
Plumdaff
joy in people
We were in Iceland earlier this month. It was bloody expensive, and was a birthday bucket list treat because one of us had a birthday with a 0 in it.
There's no getting away from the expense going there, it's a bloody expensive country, and unless you are a very experienced driver I wouldn't want to travel out into the countryside (i.e. the places you'll see the Northern Lights ) by myself without experienced guides in the winter months. The weather is very changeable and can get very ropey very quickly.
If you do decide to go the run up to Christmas and the summer months (you won't see the lights during the latter obs) are the expensive times and November and Jan-March the cheaper times. It I was going again I'd go in March when it's still dark but a higher chance of clear nights. You may need several nights to get a chance of seeing them as any rain/cloud cover scuppers your chances. Most of the trips offer you a free rebooking if your trip is cancelled or you don't see them.
We went Monday -Friday and managed to see the Northern Lights at our second attempt after our trip out was cancelled the first night. The whale watching was if anything better than the Northern Lights! It was one of our favourite ever family holidays, we loved the place, and are now considering saving up to go back/ go to Norway or Finland for the next birthday with an 0 in it.
ruffneck23
front left
I hadnt but il take a look, Although I kinda wanted to get off this Island.
ruffneck23
front left
I did look at Norway but the outlay was a bit more expensive than the one I saw in Iceland.
hash tag
Reaching out
What about somewhere slightly off of most people's lists and less obvious like Estonia or Latvia?
Northern Lights in Estonia - Guillaume Speurt via FlickrPhoto credit: Guillaume Speurt via Flickr
"Most people head to the popular Western and Central European countries to try and see the northern lights… but don’t overlook the Baltic states. At a higher latitude than Denmark, Estonia is your best bet for seeing the aurora in the region. (It is possible in Latvia and Lithuania but much less common.) Here are some of the best places to see the northern lights in Estonia."
Northern Lights in Estonia - Guillaume Speurt via FlickrPhoto credit: Guillaume Speurt via Flickr
"Most people head to the popular Western and Central European countries to try and see the northern lights… but don’t overlook the Baltic states. At a higher latitude than Denmark, Estonia is your best bet for seeing the aurora in the region. (It is possible in Latvia and Lithuania but much less common.) Here are some of the best places to see the northern lights in Estonia."
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Unfortunately, to get the best chance to see them you have to go as far north as possible which, practically speaking, for us is Norway, Sweden, and Finland, which are all expensive. We went right up north of Tromso in the Arctic circle and got lucky with 2 or 3 hours of fabulous lights on our first trip. Even up there though there were people who'd done a couple of previous trips elsewhere and seen nothing.
If you can get yourselves to Tromso and find some budget accomodation, I can thoroughly recommend these guys. They have 2 or 3 tours out every night and they communicate with each other and via live satelite weather apps to get to where the lights are most likely to be seen, so you're constantly on the move. We actually ended up in Finland on the night we saw them. It was a very long, very cold trip, but ultimately worth it.
souljacker
innit
Tonight!
I've used 'night shot' so it wasn't actually as bright as this but it was still amazing.
I've used 'night shot' so it wasn't actually as bright as this but it was still amazing.
souljacker
innit
No effects on this one:
ice-is-forming
let me rephrase that... Fuck off
Did you know that there are Southern lights too.
They can be seen from Tasmania - but obviously the further south the better
I'm planning > fly to NZ south island in winter> hire a 4x4 and then drive to places that the Southern lights spotters groups report are having good action and sightings> stay at random bnb with open fireplaces along the way> drive through beautiful mountains etc along the way.
Only life keeps getting in the way atm. It'll definitely happen though
They can be seen from Tasmania - but obviously the further south the better
I'm planning > fly to NZ south island in winter> hire a 4x4 and then drive to places that the Southern lights spotters groups report are having good action and sightings> stay at random bnb with open fireplaces along the way> drive through beautiful mountains etc along the way.
Only life keeps getting in the way atm. It'll definitely happen though
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
In that London. Not really visible to naked eye, but camera is picking it up 
news.sky.com
Northern Lights visible in England and Wales as severe solar storm hits
The Sun has experienced a spike in activity in recent days that has seen six or seven eruptions on the surface of the star spit out solar material towards Earth.
news.sky.com
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
North east Lincs
ice-is-forming
let me rephrase that... Fuck off
This was from the Medway towns 2 days ago
ice-is-forming
let me rephrase that... Fuck off
ElizabethofYork
Old Crone
Bedfordshire
2hats
Dust.
Yes. A very active, large sunspot region on the Sun, AR3664, has hurled multiple (six at last count) Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) our way (large releases of high energy electrons, protons and associated magnetic flux). That material is hitting the geomagnetic field and [technically, excites mainly electrons already in the tail of our magnetosphere, which then] pours down [the Earth's magnetic field lines] towards the upper atmosphere where it generates the aurora, such as we are seeing as part of the ongoing G5 class storm.
There are other more complex interactions, but that's the basis of the most common phenomena.
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Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Up near the fitties unless I miss my mark
kalmatthew
Lurker Extrodinaire
Two from deepest, darkest Surrey.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Bedfordshire has never looked so good. What sort of time of night was this?
ice-is-forming
let me rephrase that... Fuck off
Omg! I may be able to see it in a few hours, that's insane!
www.google.com
Spectacular southern lights seen across Australia after ‘extreme’ solar storm
Social media users post pictures of skies lit up around the country while the Bureau of Meteorology warns of solar storm’s impacts
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Carrick on Shannon
2hats
Dust.
Indeed. The near-Earth geomagnetic field is fairly (to a first/second order) symmetric about the geomagnetic polar axis, and, further out, broadly symmetric N-S about the corresponding equator along the the solar-antisolar axis. So somewhat similar events (eg conjugate aurora) occur at the geomagnetic auroral ovals around each polar region (though with variations due to, for example, local state of ionosphere and the skewing of the geomagnetic field due to the interplay between that and the interplanetary magnetic field that itself dances around with the variation in output from the Sun).
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