Quake3World

Silly question here but I have to ask, anyone actually seen the Northern Lights, the 'Aurora Borealis' ?

[youtube]izYiDDt6d8s[/youtube]

I ask because we are thinking of traveling to the northern hemisphere, staying in England for a few weeks and figure why not tick another off the bucket list. Thinking we'd fly London to Abisko or take the train ride to view the scenery along the way and soak up the experience.
Let me Google that for you
That other topic: Slow TV (Norwegian) go me thinking it would be the way to go. Scotland too looks well worth a visit while we're north of the Equator



So, have you seen these Northern Lights?

Yes and it's an incredible experience.

To be fair those Northern Lights in the video are more intense then normal.

axbaby wrote:To be fair those Northern Lights in the video are more intense then normal.

Yes I have heard similar.

Some comments say it just looks like white smoke sometimes through the naked eye but pictures taken at the same time show vivid colours.

Very common sight even in the most populated areas of southern Finland.

I saw them once as a kid in Northern England, I remember being woken up and taken into the garden in the middle of the night to witness the sky awash with colour and not having a clue wtf was going on. One of my most vivid memories of childhood. You can hear it too, it sort of buzzes.

Never seen it And i had no idea it also makes sounds, how does that work?

Seeing northern lights is on my bucketlist

Huh, I just did some reading. I think I probably imagined the buzzing because it's very rare for it to make noise, and when it does it's an unexplainable clapping/clicking noise. Interesting how your brain inflates memories like that.

edit:

The voice of the aurora is still a great mystery. Many people have reported hearing the aurora--in legend and modern times--but scientists haven't yet nailed down the reason.

Tom Hallinan, a professor of geophysics at the Geophysical Institute, has studied the aurora for decades. He said he's heard the aurora and has talked to many others who have.

"There's something going on," Hallinan said of the aurora's whisper. "It's scientifically unreasonable, yet people do hear it."

Hallinan says the thin air of the ionosphere--where the aurora dances from 60 to about 200 miles above the earth's surface--can't carry sound waves. Even if it could, Hallinan says, we're so far away that it would take several minutes for the sound to reach us.

Hallinan suggests a few possible explanations for auroral noise. He said the brain may sense electromagnetic waves from the aurora and somehow convert them to sound. Another theory is that electrical currents induced on the ground by the aurora (which also corrode the trans-Alaska oil pipeline) may create an audible electrical discharge from nearby objects such as spruce trees or buildings.

It's somehow comforting that this part of the aurora borealis remains a mystery. The voice of the aurora will undoubtedly someday be captured on tape and explained, but if I ever hear it, I'll whisper back. Maybe Barron has something to tell us.

A lot of people have reported hissing and buzzing but no one's managed to scientifically record it. I dunno, I remember there being noise that waxed and waned with the lights. I'd love to see them again as an adult. - might head to Norway for a break this year to see them and go on a metal pilgrimage.

[youtube]m5LVqi34ODs[/youtube]

Yup I've seen them in my area once. They were quite the sight to see, wish they'd happen more often.

phantasmagoria wrote:might head to Norway for a break this year to see them and go on a metal pilgrimage.

If you do remember to bring some alcohol with you, if not for yourself then to give away & make friends... it's completely unaffordable there. I remember being quite surprised by their drinking habits because of the prices; it's considered normal there to go to a party and bring your own bottle, which you then proceed to drink by yourself without offering anyone else a singular drop. And iirc the leading cause of death is folks accidentally setting their houses on fire after they screw up with their home brews

Stunningly beautiful country in any case. And salmon is considered poor people's food (i fucking love salmon).

Κracus wrote:Yup I've seen them in my area once. They were quite the sight to see, wish they'd happen more often.

You're full of shit.

Eraser wrote:Seeing northern lights is on my bucketlist

Same here. Just need to decide where...

yep, it was OK

xer0s wrote:

Eraser wrote:Seeing northern lights is on my bucketlist

Same here. Just need to decide where...

Me too and that Abisko place is looking great btw

phantasmagoria wrote:........ head to Norway for a break this year to see them and go on a metal pilgrimage.

Metal
Googles.... https://ametalstateofmind.com/ ?

i smoked them once

shit was intense

Yeas ive seen them in varying degrees of intencity from torquen to minor

They look pretty neat

3 summers ago we saw them for the first time near Thunder Bay ON, then we went camping further north this past summer near Hurst ON and were treated to some pretty spectacular displays. Hoping to see them again this year when we go camping, tho we aren't going quite as far north.

I've been in Thunder Bay for a full year, now will exit that shitholio soon.
Best Northern Lights I ever saw were on Baffin Island, surreal and magical.

There is a big tourist attraction in Yellowknife where the Japanese married couples try to make a baby under the Northern Lights for luck or some shit in a tent provided by the Tourist Companies.

http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2 ... _07n2.html
edit: perhaps a myth

It's hilarious for a brief time every year in -30 to -40C temperatures to watch the whole town filled with Japanese couples wearing the exact same red parka and white boots.

My Buddy in Yellowknife (Tony Foliot- The Snow King) makes beautiful ice castles and ice cabins for these guys too on Great Slave Lake.

Animal Planet has a tv show (Ice Lake Rebels) about him and other House Boat Dwellers living 500 meters from the city .. They stay on homebuilt houseboats to avoid city taxes .. odd bunch.
The show makes it look like they are a billion miles away, dumb.

^^^ I imagine it would be funny to see the red brigade (pun) but tent p0rn


Thanks for the replies thus far.

I still have that query: Some comments I read say, it can at times look like white smoke when seen (only sometimes) through the naked eye but pictures taken at the same time show vivid colours somewhat confirmed by comments from axbaby earlier.

axbaby wrote:To be fair those Northern Lights in the video are more intense then normal.

Contradicting comments on that YT video site (if you can believe 'em)

They're 100% real, no filter, no color editing, no nothing. It's one of the most powerful thing I've seen in my life(I've seen it in person many times)

Nah the ones I saw were green just like the video. I was driving in an area called Rothesay in southern New-brunswick. It looked like a long ass ribbon spanning several kilometers up in the sky. It didn't move around or anything it just kinda hung there looking amazing.

I've heard that there's all sorts of colors you can see them in, white wouldn't surprise me.

I'm sure if you went further north they appear more often and probably look even more impressive.

Saw them when arriving after midnight in Fairbanks, Alaska. Like mentioned before, the ones I saw were white and didn't really move, just faded in and out at the top of the sky.