Northern Lights
- Thread starter Begbie
- Start date
Good article on the Northern Lights from The Guardians website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/nov/13/aurora-borealis-northern-lights-travel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/nov/13/aurora-borealis-northern-lights-travel
I'd be genuinely shocked if it's more expensive than Norway.
A subject close to my heart, because I too, would like to see them.
As others have said.. they are often visible in the far north of Scotland - basically anywhere north of Inverness you are in with a better chance.
Of course, you have to have a solar flare heading this way, and hitting the atmosphere at night, and a clear, cloudless sky...
There are various websites to help you predict them...
http://www.spaceweather.com tells you about sunspot activities - sunspots kick out flares, which cause the northern lights. Look down the left column, and you'll see the current auroral oval, then choose Europe... tonight, for example, the oval extends quite a bit further south than normal, but the heavy stuff is still well north. Further down the column you can see the chances of flares and storms.
The other site I use is http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ this gives you the current conditions at the sensor in Scotland. Any deviation from the average may indicate possible storm activity now or imminently. On this page you can also look at archive pictures.
Hope this info helps..
As others have said.. they are often visible in the far north of Scotland - basically anywhere north of Inverness you are in with a better chance.
Of course, you have to have a solar flare heading this way, and hitting the atmosphere at night, and a clear, cloudless sky...
There are various websites to help you predict them...
http://www.spaceweather.com tells you about sunspot activities - sunspots kick out flares, which cause the northern lights. Look down the left column, and you'll see the current auroral oval, then choose Europe... tonight, for example, the oval extends quite a bit further south than normal, but the heavy stuff is still well north. Further down the column you can see the chances of flares and storms.
The other site I use is http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ this gives you the current conditions at the sensor in Scotland. Any deviation from the average may indicate possible storm activity now or imminently. On this page you can also look at archive pictures.
Hope this info helps..
Man of Honour
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If you wanted to go to Rovaniemi then it's just over £200 for flights in the middle of February with Finnair with a fairly brief stopover in Helsinki.
Also looking to go myself with the girlfriend. We looked up Iceland vacations and they are relatively cheap now (less than £500 each for flights, 3 nights accommodation, a tour guided trip to see the lights, and a trip to blue lagoon), unfortunately I have no holidays left until April, and they basically stop the trips at the end of March.
Looks like I'm going to have to wait for the next September - March window!
Looks like I'm going to have to wait for the next September - March window!
Would love to see this too, was actually looking at a holiday in Sweden which featured dog-sledding, snowmobiles and a night in the Ice Hotel, it wouldn't be so bad if i didn't get to see them then... was expensive though 
Also like others have said it seems the right season seems to be coming to a close so may have to be later in the year now.
Also like others have said it seems the right season seems to be coming to a close so may have to be later in the year now.
One of my birthday presents last year was a ticket for plane trip around essentially just above Scotland and back from east Midlands airport to see the northern lights. I enjoyed it although its not the same experience as actually being further up north where they are actually overhead.
Soldato
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Me and the fiancé have decided we're going to do this as our honeymoon. Saying that we are both aware that it isn't guaranteed that we see them...
kd
kd
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My Daughter says she is going to Reyjavik (outskirts) on Tuesday for 4 days and it is costing her £310 for flight and hotel + B&B, transfers in Iceland are £30.
Man of Honour
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My daughter has just sent her first 2 texts:
"The transfer was the craziest thing ever. I've never seen weather like this, you cant see past 30cm in front of you".
"Loads of snow, defo need my wellies here".
"The transfer was the craziest thing ever. I've never seen weather like this, you cant see past 30cm in front of you".
"Loads of snow, defo need my wellies here".
I saw them twice while I was living in Canada.
It is an amazing thing to have witnessed and we sat up for hours on the deck watching them.
I would say though that they are not typically how you've likely seen them before, which is the first thing you realise.
More often than not, nature programmes tend to use sped up time-lapses, which makes them move at great speed.
Still photos, like the one posted above, and the ones I took myself, obviously require long exposures, so they end up being brighter and more saturated than how it really looks to your eye.
How I remember seeing them is a dark green glow on the Horizon. It would then all of a sudden occasionally shift.
It is an amazing thing to have witnessed and we sat up for hours on the deck watching them.
I would say though that they are not typically how you've likely seen them before, which is the first thing you realise.
More often than not, nature programmes tend to use sped up time-lapses, which makes them move at great speed.
Still photos, like the one posted above, and the ones I took myself, obviously require long exposures, so they end up being brighter and more saturated than how it really looks to your eye.
How I remember seeing them is a dark green glow on the Horizon. It would then all of a sudden occasionally shift.
I went to iceland in 2010 and didn't find it that expensive, particularly given what people had said prior to going, but the Icelandic Krone had dropped in value following the recession, so that may have had an impact. I was also recently in Stockholm and found it comparable in prices, and found Finland similar to both. In all cases, alcohol (especially Wine) was pricey,
I went for a week in December and I think flights were about £200, hotel about £150 per room per night (4/5* i think). My GF and I then spent about 1200 quid between us but we ate out at the higher end of the market, and did a lot of excursions and things like visiting volcanos etc. These organised trips were expensive, particularly the ones involving driving onto glaciers or upto volcanos.
I saw the northern lights and they were stunning. The deal in Iceland was that you could pay to go on a night tour to see them and between October and February they said if you didn't see them, you got a second trip free, so it seemed relatively easy to see them. You could also just hire a car and drive outside of Reykjavik late at night and wait as there is so little light pollution and the roads are very well maintained in spite of the cold weather!
Yeh, they are on an 11 year cycle and this is the 11th year so there should be some good displays in the next few months. The peak time for them is February, I know a few people going to Norway in the hope of seeing them.
I was in Iceland in October and we were getting excited due to seeing all the signs of the lights milky sky etc then it got cloudy. When we got back to the UK I found out they had some of the best displays for years, dam clouds
Should have gone to the Icehotel with me
In fact, you lot can have the whole album, I'm still adding to it as I'm still here.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150698064987178.498812.538497177&type=1&l=dfd076c9dd
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