Chasing the Elusive Northern Lights

You will notice I have no photos.  I can't even figure out how to download a free image. Google images has many photos of the northern lights.

Science lesson

  The northern lights are streams of charged particles from the sun (solar wind) that are attracted to the magnetic regions around both the north and south poles. Their interaction in the electrons of oxygen and nitrogen make for a visible aurora.  The lights are not always visible in colors to the naked eye, and if the stream is weak, the color flashes may last only a second or two. Galileo first used the term aurora borealis which is Latin for northern red dawn.

Most professional photos of northern lights are taken with special cameras at a low setting with an extremely slow shutter speed.  I don't know if my camera will work this way. I will be checking my directions on the long flight home.  I did not get any usable shots.

Chasing Around the Finnish Border at Midnight

A small group of us, along with our guide, Gunnar, set forth for a location away from towns and villages. We needed to be in total darkness, without light pollution from city lights.  We went to several places.  Looking up we could see either stars or clouds.  When there is no light to bounce off of them, the clouds appear grayish-black and stars cannot be seen through them.  We were looking for streaks of white.  We found several of them.  One of our group was able to set her camera to the right settings, look for the white streaks and take pictures.  The pictures on her camera did have green lights to them.  Occasionally the streaks would undulate and a flash of pale green could be seen.  I saw the lights. I just could not photograph them.  Imagine a group of adults standing in the dark, out in the middle in nowhere, looking at the sky and getting excited "There's one - ooh, look there!"

When the solar wind is strong, the lights can be seen with the naked eye, and there is color, usually green.  Very rarely, a phenomenon, which Gunnar called "rock and roll time" occurs and other colors, such as red, yellow and blue can be seen.  He has only seen this three times in the last 15 years.

We were out until 1 a.m.  It was not what I was expecting, but it was very interesting, and I would try this again.