Working on the bucket list. I have pretty much finished my always wanted firearms list, now onto other items.
The Northern Lights. I have always wanted to see them.
Where and when is my best chance to see view them, I'm willing to travel any place for the best experience.

I received a email from a place in Churchill Canada that talked about Northern Light viewing and Polar bears,that would be hard to top.

I've seen them a couple of times since moving to Anchorage in mid-October. It just needs to be clear and the lights need to be especially bright to see them over the city lights of Anchorage. The only time I had seen them before was in October in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, Wyoming.

I know there are tour companies up in Fairbanks that specialize in them. There's also some companies in Minnesota that do them as well. The Northern Lights are impressive, but I'm not sure I'd spend a lot of cash with that as the only purpose of the trip.

A couple of months ago I had a hop from McChord AFB (Seattle) to a location in Europe, with several hours over Canada. It was night, and solar flares were in progress, and it was one of the best displays of the aurora that I've seen. We flew under the aurora for nearly three hours (as it paralleled our course almost the whole way until Nova Scotia, and shut off the cockpit lights and turned down the displays to watch. It was spectacular.

I've seen some good displays in Alaska and Siberia, but this event was one fo the best I've seen. Really beautiful.

Well, you definitely have to get away from your big city lights, but I don’t think you’d have to travel super far to see them, could possibly do so in northern Illinois. Certainly they are in MN, you just have to be up late (or early), watch the aurora forecast, and be prepared to get outside.
Polar bears and aurora would be cool, but I might be a little anxious about where the rest of the bears were - instead of watching the lights I’d be peeking around!
There are some cool trips I’ve seen advertised with high percentages/guarantees of displays depending on when you go.

Good luck in your quest. My fav remembrance of lights were from when I was a kid. Central cone shaped displays with multi colors flashing on the sides of the skies. I remember running next door to wake the neighbor kids. That was an awesome night.

About 5 years ago we went to Iceland. The Aurora has neen on my bucket list for years, and being in NY it was a cheap and quick flight. It was awesome. Best 3 hrs Ive ever spent in 9* cold. Wherever you decide to go if you have the good fortune to witness it, it will stay with you forever.

We get them here not infrequently and they can be impressive.

My first summer out of high school, I worked on a fire lookout tower. Zero ambient light out where I was, and there were some amazing shows that year.

About 20 years later, I took a date up to my old tower one night. She'd never seen the northern lights and it couldn't have been a more perfect night. Multiple green sheets flowing in the breeze.

I got some.

Years ago when I was in high school or college, the weatherman in Nashville, Tennessee, talked about some relatively rare atmospheric circumstances that would allow those in Middle Tennessee to see the Northern Lights that night if they were well out in the country away from the glare of city lights. That defined our family farm to a T, so I spent an hour watching that night, just visible above the northern horizon. My photo with an instamatic camera didn't turn out.

Wikivoyage says the Northern Lights "are occasionally seen as far south as 35 degrees North latitude." I just checked my parents farm and the latitude is roughly 35.66 degrees north.

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
Working on the bucket list. I have pretty much finished my always wanted firearms list, now onto other items.
The Northern Lights. I have always wanted to see them.
Where and when is my best chance to see view them, I'm willing to travel any place for the VC best experience.

I received a email from a place in Churchill Canada that talked about Northern Light viewing and Polar bears,that would be hard to top.

My parents did the Churchill thing a few years back and had an amazing time. The northern lights were so great that they were impressive even in iPhone photos they took.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jonrem,

From my patio.

We just saw them from Chena hot springs road outside of Fairbanks AK. No polar bears though.

Iceland

I grew up in Northern Arizona and New Mexico in the 1950s. We saw the northern lights for a few nights two years in a row in the mid 1950s.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Iceland

The weather in Iceland in the dark months can work against you. Iceland is beautiful, and you should definitely go... But not just for the northern lights.

I think Norway or the other Scandinavian countries would have weather that is a little more consistent.

You need be darkness, clear skies, and magnetic energy. Magnetic energy coming off the sun is random, can't predict that, but you can select a location based on darkness and chance of course skies. You should also make the trip long enough so that you can build in multiple attempts at seeing the lights.

I have seen them on rare occasions here on Minnesota. We also saw them one night in Iceland and they were way more impressive. My wife used this site to help track them when we there but it can be used for other areas as well:

https://cdn.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Iceland

I've seen some amazing pictures of the Northen Lights from Iceland.

A couple years ago I went there for 4-5 days. Besides exploring the amazing countryside I planed on shotting the northern lights. Took my good camera, lens, and tripod. Never had a clear night to see them.

Now I would still recommend a trip there. I had another friend go last year and got some amazing pictures of the northern lights there.

I would think a week-long trip and you should get a good day.

Do your planning though. You need to get away from the city and any lights to get good pictures.

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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
I know there are tour companies up in Fairbanks that specialize in them.

Had some friends who just did this for NYE. There's a bunch of operators/lodges who have developed this little niche travel segment. For those who don't want to to leave the US but, interested in seeing the lights...

If you are looking for something unique, check out “Just Short of Magic” out of Fairbanks. Eleanor Wirts, the owner, is a really facinating and honest person. A few years back, we were looking for a few fun and memorable things to do with the kids before they went off to college. We took them out of school for a week in February and worked our way North. We spent two nights in the yurt she rents, going dog sledding one day and aurora watching the other. Backed it up by a night at a Hampton Inn in Faibanks for a shower and BBQ at Big Daddy’s downtown. Saw the lights, although they were not at their prime those days. There are several sites run by Canada that will forecast the lights weeks out via solar activity.

Drop me a line out here south of I-80 if you want, and we can chat.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Frenchy1004:
I have seen them on rare occasions here on Minnesota. We also saw them one night in Iceland and they were way more impressive. My wife used this site to help track them when we there but it can be used for other areas as well:

https://cdn.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm

Thanks for the link!

I have seen then twice in my 56 years here on earth. Both times were here in New Hampshire, over 25 years ago. Breath taking to say the least! Good luck on your bucket list.

The best views of the lights I ever had were on a motorcycle trip decades ago that placed me some 4 to 5 hours north of Lake Ontario. I was "bike camping" with a small one man shelter and cozy sleeping bag. I pulled off the road into a small pasture for the night. Beautiful pristine seeing with absolutely no light pollution of any kind. The Milky Way was deep and vibrant drawing you in. But when the light show started I was awestruck. It was an experience I'll never forget.