When cruising the coast of Norway with Hurtigruten, passengers get wake-up calls to see the aurora. A three-night cruise from Tromsø to Trondheim starts at £566 including flights, transfers and half board. Packages coinciding with Tromsø’s Northern Lights Festival in late January are also available.
Iceland
The smart option for a fun weekend break, Iceland offers a fair chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Discover the World has packages to Reykjavik from £308 including flights and breakfast. Excursions out of the city to look for the aurora in a superjeep cost £89.
Canada
Frontier Canada offers tailor-made trips to snowbound retreats such as the Inn on the Lake outside Whitehorse, with every chance of spotting the aurora. A seven-night package via Vancouver costs from £1,775 including flights, transfers, all meals and activities.
Alaska
Fairbanks is a city of aurora-watchers and its university posts useful aurora forecasts. Alaska Tours.com arranges trips to viewing points such as Bettles Lodge. A five-day package costs from £720 including two nights in Fairbanks, two at Bettles Lodge, transfers, taxes, hire of winter gear and most meals. KLM has flights to Fairbanks via Seattle from £434 return. Prices are per person for travel in February 2009, flying from London.
Finland
Where is the coolest place to stay and see the Northern Lights? Our vote goes to Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen in Finland. The Northern Lights can be seen anywhere above 60 degrees north latitude but this place is special and these pictures show...
Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen, Finland
Surrounded by Lapland's exotic and stunning scenery, Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen offers 31 first-class log cabins in Lapland. Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen is located in the Saariselka fell area amidst beautiful Finnish Lapland scenery in the vicinity of Urho Kekkonen National Park along the road leading to Nordkap and the Arctic Ocean. Just look at these pictures to see how stunning this place is...
Imagine yourself sleeping in an Igloo made of Snow. It is totally quiet. Lights inside ice illuminate the Igloo. These make the atmosphere so exciting that never get bored of marvelling it, until you fall to deep, comfortable sleep in your warm down sleeping bag. When sleeping in the Glass Igloos the customer is able to marvel the amazing northern lights and the millions of stars in the sky. The experience is also unforgettable when there is a snowstorm. Kakslauttanen is a cool place for seeing the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, as in the area there are not so many electric lights outside and it is north enough so that the probability of them is very high from late August to late April.
Here is a map of the area and its amenities...
Six tips for seeing the Northern Lights
Iceland
The smart option for a fun weekend break, Iceland offers a fair chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Discover the World has packages to Reykjavik from £308 including flights and breakfast. Excursions out of the city to look for the aurora in a superjeep cost £89.
Canada
Frontier Canada offers tailor-made trips to snowbound retreats such as the Inn on the Lake outside Whitehorse, with every chance of spotting the aurora. A seven-night package via Vancouver costs from £1,775 including flights, transfers, all meals and activities.
Alaska
Fairbanks is a city of aurora-watchers and its university posts useful aurora forecasts. Alaska Tours.com arranges trips to viewing points such as Bettles Lodge. A five-day package costs from £720 including two nights in Fairbanks, two at Bettles Lodge, transfers, taxes, hire of winter gear and most meals. KLM has flights to Fairbanks via Seattle from £434 return. Prices are per person for travel in February 2009, flying from London.
Finland
Where is the coolest place to stay and see the Northern Lights? Our vote goes to Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen in Finland. The Northern Lights can be seen anywhere above 60 degrees north latitude but this place is special and these pictures show...
Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen, Finland
Surrounded by Lapland's exotic and stunning scenery, Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen offers 31 first-class log cabins in Lapland. Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen is located in the Saariselka fell area amidst beautiful Finnish Lapland scenery in the vicinity of Urho Kekkonen National Park along the road leading to Nordkap and the Arctic Ocean. Just look at these pictures to see how stunning this place is...
Imagine yourself sleeping in an Igloo made of Snow. It is totally quiet. Lights inside ice illuminate the Igloo. These make the atmosphere so exciting that never get bored of marvelling it, until you fall to deep, comfortable sleep in your warm down sleeping bag. When sleeping in the Glass Igloos the customer is able to marvel the amazing northern lights and the millions of stars in the sky. The experience is also unforgettable when there is a snowstorm. Kakslauttanen is a cool place for seeing the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, as in the area there are not so many electric lights outside and it is north enough so that the probability of them is very high from late August to late April.
Here is a map of the area and its amenities...
Six tips for seeing the Northern Lights
- Go for several days; if the aurora appears, there is a good chance it will be seen on subsequent days.
- Get away from urban areas – ships, wilderness lodges and remote camps are good locations.
- September to October and February to March are good months for aurora spotting. The optimum time to visit will depend on local conditions; telephone ahead for advice and consult a lunar calendar to find darker nights.
- Ice hotels look their best at the start of the season. At busy times, book activities in advance.
- Wrap up, but don’t buy lots of kit – many hotels will provide or rent it.
- Read up beforehand to get the most out of the experience. Aurora: The Mysterious Northern Lights by Candace Savage (Firefly, £10.15 ) is a superb introduction; The Northern Lights by Lucy Jago (Penguin, £6.99) tells the life story of Kristian Birkeland; Lapland (Bradt, £13.99) is a useful guide to Arctic Scandinavia.
Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights Pictures
A collection of stunning Aurora Borealis or 'northern lights' pictures from national Geographic that capture beautifully this amazing phenomenon. Just imagine what people must have thought thousands of years ago and saw streams and swirls of colours in the night sky. Watching this spectacular celestial phenomena today is beyond spectacular, truly a magnificent sight and are a photographers dream.
All it takes is for the earth to have an atmosphere and the sun to eject ions at speeds up to 1200 km/second then hey presto, you’ve got yourself some unbelievably cool mother nature action!
The following northern lights pictures are from copyright free stock photo websites.
The following photographs are from the wallpaper website http://wallbase.net
Is there a hidden order to the Northern Lights?
The shifting, shimmering Northern Lights might be more ordered than anyone realised. New observations suggest that, contrary to expectations, some of the colourful light shows appear to be polarised, with their electromagnetic waves lined up in a common orientation.
If confirmed, the discovery will provide a powerful new tool to understand the Earth's magnetic field and the atmospheres of other planets.
Auroras shine because charged particles from the Sun, such as electrons, get captured by the Earth's magnetic field. The field channels the particles into the atmosphere above the Earth's poles, where they collide with gas particles, causing them to glow.
But scientists have long doubted the process could lead to polarised auroras. That's because there were thought to be too many atmospheric collisions for the resulting electromagnetic waves to be neatly aligned.
In fact, when Australian researcher Robert Duncan announced in 1958 that he had detected one instance of polarisation in the nocturnal display after many nights of searching, his findings were disputed and the observation was dismissed within a year.
Now, scientists working on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen far north in the Arctic have found new evidence of the phenomenon.
All it takes is for the earth to have an atmosphere and the sun to eject ions at speeds up to 1200 km/second then hey presto, you’ve got yourself some unbelievably cool mother nature action!
Photo sourced from National Geographic
Photo sourced from National Geographic
The following northern lights pictures are from copyright free stock photo websites.
The following photographs are from the wallpaper website http://wallbase.net
Is there a hidden order to the Northern Lights?
The shifting, shimmering Northern Lights might be more ordered than anyone realised. New observations suggest that, contrary to expectations, some of the colourful light shows appear to be polarised, with their electromagnetic waves lined up in a common orientation.
If confirmed, the discovery will provide a powerful new tool to understand the Earth's magnetic field and the atmospheres of other planets.
Auroras shine because charged particles from the Sun, such as electrons, get captured by the Earth's magnetic field. The field channels the particles into the atmosphere above the Earth's poles, where they collide with gas particles, causing them to glow.
But scientists have long doubted the process could lead to polarised auroras. That's because there were thought to be too many atmospheric collisions for the resulting electromagnetic waves to be neatly aligned.
In fact, when Australian researcher Robert Duncan announced in 1958 that he had detected one instance of polarisation in the nocturnal display after many nights of searching, his findings were disputed and the observation was dismissed within a year.
Now, scientists working on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen far north in the Arctic have found new evidence of the phenomenon.
2 Comments
Nice post. To see this beautiful northern lights book alaska Northern lights trip tours now.
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures. and yes, to see this nature beauty is rare. Alaska is amazing place to see this beautiful northern lights and yes winter is the best time. So, pack your bags now for Northern lights photo tour
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