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Comment by idlewords | Hacker News Reader

If you've never seen the northern lights, it's really worth finding any excuse to go do. Videos can give you an idea of what it's like, but there's something deep in the animal brain that reacts to the sky being full of shimmering, spooky light, that is really impossible to describe or to capture on film.

Just like a solar eclipse, the aurora is one of those celestial phenomena that you really have to experience firsthand, at least once in your life. It's worth the hassle!

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I'm living in aurora country, and not really seeing what's the big deal with some green streaks in the sky.

On the other hand I've heard the point made that if a clear night sky was as rare as northern lights or an eclipse, people would similarly be freaking out about it as a life-changing almost religious primal experience.

It's very easy to take this stuff for granted, I guess is what I'm saying.

Bouncing radio waves off them is quite cool.

if you've never seen snow in your life, and then see it for the first time, say as an adult, it is quite an experience. same for the wide sea/ocean/beach.

It's because it's rare to see them so far south. Normally people would go to Iceland or somewhere to see them.

> On the other hand I've heard the point made that if a clear night sky was as rare as northern lights or an eclipse, people would similarly be freaking out about it as a life-changing almost religious primal experience.

“Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov uses this a premise.

It might even be enough that you’d start trying to list the nine billion names of God…

Which of course they are in large cities. And city dwellers often do have such a reaction to a clear night sky in a dark place where you can actually see all the stars.

Haha yeah, I remember a friend of mine from Seoul coming to visit me and looking with wonder at the stars in the night sky. It’s so easy to take these things for granted.

Can't really agree - I still enjoy a good Aurora display - but of course my bar for "wow" is raised to clear night, little light pollution and being blessed by looking right up into the corona - along with some great colors (not just green).

Last winter I had the good fortune to go for a walk and catching the corona right behind my house (on a side I can't see the sky from inside - due to window placement and trees). Beautiful.

But then I also marvel at a clear starry night...

Aurora

lighting up a cold night

Letting us know

below the horizon

The Sun is shining

8 minutes

one unit away

In the dark

I've lived there too, and I can't understand those who don't see the wonder of an amazing Aurora from time to time. Now add to this that the Aurora is a perfect excuse to go do some physics experiments with magnets and lasers. ;) Those tools are the basis for some prediction of bursts of Aurora. That and ofc the visual observation of changes on the surface of the Sun, especially concerning solar flare activity.

I too live in aurora country (grew up in Northern Alberta), and while it does stop being novel every once in a while it can still surprise. I can still remember a night 20 years ago when the sky was a bright red, stretching from the horizon to directly overhead. It was quite spooky.

I live above latitude 65 degrees so auroras are quite common. Few years ago I had to deliberately go out and seek location without light pollution and watch auroras because I wasn't sure anymore if I had actually seen them live.

Now I atleast remember the delighted screams of tourists that were taking photos there.

Just be aware that the saturated colors seen on photographs are an artifact of the medium and the vidoes making it look like fireworks are typically sped-up.

It can’t really be captured om film - and what you see on film is quite different.

When the Aurora is strong, you can see subtle undulations. It will hang down like a velvet curtain from the sky, subtly moving like in a faint breeze. When I was a kid, we'd whistle for the Aurora, to make it dance. But according to the folksy (and fun) superstition, you should avoid waving to it with a white handkerchief, lest it come down and sweep you away into the heavens, where you'd be forever trapped in the castles of the sky. Some would still wave white handkerchiefs for that very reason though, if for no other reason than to tempt fate. ;)

I've done a lot of time-lapse of Aurora, which accentuates the moves. These days, however, the ISO and light sensitivity of cameras has gotten so good that you can indeed film the Aurora at regular shutter speeds and still get a really good result. I think we'll see more interesting (and perhaps more scientific) presentations of the phenomena in the future due to that fact. Or one may at least hope!

I too whistled at the Aurora Borealis to encourage them. It was legend that if you were overzealous, then the lights could become agitated and come down and cut off your head.

I am from Interior Alaska. Later in life, I heard this same story from someone from Gambell, Alaska in the Bering Sea. That is when it dawned on me, that if you are outside whistling for too long, someone/something might come and cut off your head. Interior Alaskans and Coastal Alaskans used to kidnap each other with enough regularity to give precedence to such legends.

It's definitely something I want to experience!

It's too bad they aren't easier to plan around. I looked into going to Iceland once and it was like " there might be an aurora." As I recall, it's less of a seasonal thing and more sheer luck. (I know the weather is hard to predict in general.)

Go to Iceland anyway you won't regret it from its community geothermal bathing culture (how each neighborhood socializes after work) to the many amazing outdoor wonders to its capital city, Reykjavík. If your American visiting there its eye opening!

I didn't see the lights but fell in love with Iceland. If you really want to see them you have to hunt and chase them! Like tonight Alaska is the place to be!

to its capital city, Reykjavík.

When were you there last? While I agree with everything else you say, Reykjavik has over the last decade or so unfortunately turned into a city of souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants. Personally I wouldn't 'budget' more than 24 hours of an Iceland vacation to Reykjavik.

I'm American and it was my first trip to a European country. I was there for two weeks in January. It's a different and personally a better world there then here in the US due to its small population..little to no crime ..unable to carry a gun..their citizens are well taken care of. I went on a few dates with some locals while there and it was eye opening to hear their view of the US. With many saying they use to want to come to the US but do not want to cause of guns/school shootings. I was like nah it's not that bad your media is overselling you yet a week later I come home and have a crazy gunman in my woods/my backyard who just shot up police.

Unfortunately the US will never get to be the utopia that is Iceland in terms of safety and taking care of its citizens so crime doesn't need to be committed. It's too big with half the population just thinking like their parents and grandparents do or did vs. thinking hmm I'm open minded to see how other countries work.

Love Iceland!

Heck, I went in 2017, which is just about when the low cost airlines there started to pick up and tourists started flocking over. But even back then I wouldn't recommend spending more than 2 days in Reykjavik when you have such an amazing country to explore.

Yeah WoW Airlines was the Icelandic budget airline now it's Play Airlines. Which was solid for a little more then a few hundred dollars round trip. I just brought my luggage onboard with me as I hear they lose luggage.

> As I recall, it's less of a seasonal thing and more sheer luck. (I know the weather is hard to predict in general.)

I think it's largely due to "weather" on the Sun (although I believe you also need it to be a clear night on Earth in order to be able to see it properly)

If you come to the North of Norway between the end of December and the start of February, you'll usually see it if you stick around for more than a week. The biggest problem up North is really the weather. It's often cloudy, and for that reason the months prior December, and after February, aren't really good for spotting the Aurora. Also you'll want to camp out somewhere away from light pollution. I mean, I saw it often enough within the city limits of Tromsø, but you'll get a completely different experience if you go into the mountains, say at some research station, or to some remote fishing village by the sea. Add to this that January and February are usually the coldest months up there, with temps that can stretch below -20° Celsius / -4 Fahrenheit so bring warm clothing and a thermos with hot chocolate!

I'm going up to Alaska this summer with my in-laws and the one thing I'm super sad about is I definitely won't be able to see them.

On the plus side you get to enjoy the midnight sun. It's a pretty unique experience. And now you have an excuse to visit again!

Not quite midnight sun, but one of the most magical experiences of my life was staying up all night on the side of a proglacial river and watching the sun go down... just to have it come up again an hour or so later a couple mountains to the right. It never even fully went down, which is why I never fully went to sleep.

I live in such an area. The sun technically goes down for a few hours every night in the summer - but it stays just below the horizon. I can read outside at night, and it is more akin to night being a few hours of early sunset that bleeds into late sunrise.

It was honestly more magical 9 or 10 years ago when I first got here, but I still enjoy it.

It'll be about 20-ish hours of daylight I think with the rest being civil twilight. I'm only making it as far north as Fairbanks on this trip.

"The sky is awake, so I'm awake."

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