Aurora borealis with silhouette love romantic couple on the mountain.Honeymoon travel concept
Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? If not, this could be your week, and for more than one reason.
One of naked eye astronomy’s greatest sights, the Northern Lights (or Southern Lights south of the equator) are the result of the solar wind interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
However, aurora-hunting is not exactly the easiest hobby in the world. For starters, the most reliable way to see them is to go to the Arctic or Antarctic circles. That’s about 67° north or south. But there’s still a lot more to think about, depending on when you want to go and what you hope to see.
Here’s everything you need to know about traveling to see aurora and the best place to see them—including why Northern Lights are expected to peak this week:
1. Displays of aurora peak at the equinoxes
Equinox sees the Earth’s axis tilted side-on to the Sun, which means the solar wind’s magnetic field syncs with Earth’s. Consequently, charged particles more easily get accelerated down its field lines and, voila, aurorae! The Russel-McPherron Effect describes there being twice as many displays of aurorae around the equinoxes—in both September and March—compared to around the solstices in December and June.
The season for Northern Lights is September through March while the season for Southern Lights is March through September, though only because there is sufficient darkness to make aurora-hunting practical.
2. You need a clear and moonless sky
It’s pretty obvious that to see the Northern Lights clearly you’re going to need a sky without any cloud. That’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do at this time of year, so consult weather apps.
Just as important is to avoid a full Moon. Although you can definitely see bright displays of aurora around a full Moon, they have slightly more impact in a properly dark sky. Luckily, right now there are virtually moonless skies at night. The best time to go aurora-hunting is the seven days and nights before the New Moon and the three nights after.
3. Be prepared at all times
So you decided to go to the aurora zone, you booked into an expensive hotel and waited indoors for a display of the Northern Lights to begin. Keep careful watch at the windows. You may be told by locals (and even the hotel staff) that the aurora tend to show themselves around 11 pm at the latest, which may persuade you to give up and go to bed.
Such advice is trash.
Aurora can and do appear at any time of night. Anyone who says otherwise is merely telling you about their normal sleep patterns.
The wise aurora-hunter sets an alarm every hour throughout the night to get up and check if skies are clear and if aurorae are dancing. You can sleep when you return home.
BANFF, AB – SEPTEMBER 04: The Northern Lights appear in the sky through a layer of smoke caused by … [+]
4. We’re now in a ‘green zone’ for aurora-hunting
The Sun has a roughly 11 year solar cycle during which its activity waxes and wanes from solar minimum to maximum and back again. The current solar cycle began in 2019 at the last solar minimum and the maximum is predicted to occur in 2025.
Solar activity is already massively increased compared to just a few years ago and it will continue to increase—and cause more (and more intense) displays of aurora—through 2026 or 2027. The time to go aurora-hunting is now!
5. Aurora photos require a tripod
It’s now possible to take a half-decent photograph of the Northern Lights using a smartphone, with various “night modes” proving reasonably effective at capturing the dancing green lights. However, you must put your smartphone on some kind of tripod, however small.
The same applies for a DSLR or mirrorless camera, which remain the best way to capture the Northern Lights. How long you open the shutter for should depend on how bright the displays of aurorae are, but count on somewhere between four and 25 seconds. ISO 800 to 3200 works reasonably well at keeping the image bright and clean, as does using a wide-angle lens used at its largest aperture (for example, f/2.8 to f/4). Shoot in raw if you can and use Photoshop later to bring out the fabulous colors—but don’t oversaturate it and make it look fake! Aurora are green, but no that green.
An aurora crowns the Earth beneath a starry sky in this night time photograph from the International … [+]
6. Get to the Arctic Circle
Don’t be persuaded to prioritise a good resort or a nice hotel that’s in a country in the aurora zone yet significantly south of the Arctic Circle. Sure, particularly intense displays of aurorae occur in the horseshoe, and that horseshoe pushes further south below the Arctic Circle. However, you can’t go wrong if you aim for the Arctic Circle, where even run-of-the-mill displays of aurora will put you front and center. Aim for 66-69° North latitudes in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Lapland (northern Norway, northern Sweden and northern Finland), Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska.
7. Types of aurorae
If you were lucky to see a display of the Northern Lights in the distance—typically in the north—it will likely appear as a slow-moving arc. If it’s a little closer to where you are curtains then ribbon-like bands may ripple in front of you. If you see pillars, the display is even closer and if it’s right above your head expect to see extremely bright “corona.” The latter, which appear to pulsate and can look like an open mouth, and the ultimate prize—and sure to get you coming back to the Arctic Circle for more.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
