Chasing the Aurora

[norrahe]

2012 is supposed to be the best year to see the lights

[mudskipper]

2012 is supposed to be the best year to see the lights

yep - that's more what we werd the hoping for. The weather is bad though - lots of cloud cover. Oh well.

[KimberleyChris]

Six hours on a coach, and we saw a vague grey glow behind a cloud, that could have been nothing or the moon, or a distant light. If they hadn't pointed it out, you wouldn't have even noticed it. No colour or movement.

That's an aurora, I'm afraid. Many people expect to see the sky ablaze with colour, like looking up at a luminous flapping curtain. But unless the aurora is particularly intense, all you normally see is what you described.

The vivid photo images that you see are taken using long exposures, and the 'flapping curtain' effect is really speeded-up time-lapse cine.

I've only ever seen one, and I was at sea. Being a radio ham, I have 'heard' aurora, because we bounce VHF signals off them just for fun.

Enjoy your holiday :-)

[Cliphead]

I've seen the aurora several times. The first was the most spectacular, it was so bright it woke me as the bedroom was filled with light even through curtains. Going outside to have a look was breathtaking.

[AtW]

Not watching meteor showers, auroras and any tulip like this ever since I read The Day of the Triffids...

[Cliphead]

Not watching meteor showers, auroras and any tulip like this ever since I read The Day of the Triffids...

It wasn't real you know.

[KimberleyChris]

I've seen the aurora several times. The first was the most spectacular, it was so bright it woke me as the bedroom was filled with light even through curtains. Going outside to have a look was breathtaking.

I've never been that lucky.

I only saw the Southern equivalent, but there were other things in the sky to worry about at the time :-)

[TheFaQQer]

I've seen the aurora several times. The first was the most spectacular, it was so bright it woke me as the bedroom was filled with light even through curtains. Going outside to have a look was breathtaking.

Mate of mine did the same kind of trip as k2p2 (albeit to Sweden), and failed to see them.

He was overjoyed when I said I'd seen it two or three times in Yorkshire.