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Comment by marmakoide | Hacker News Reader

Wow, I just went outside (South West of France) to plug the car for charging before going to bed.

I noticed unusual, faint light patterns in the night sky, like long spikes coming from the North. It was not the Milky Way, we can see every clear night. Color was mostly gray slightly pink. Wondered what was that ... My first aurora !!!

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> It was not the Milky Way, we can see every clear night.

I'm exceedingly jealous. I don't think I've ever lived somewhere that I could see it, no matter how clear the night. Looking at images of "north america at night" vs "europe at night" I can see why.

In most locations around the world , I think you are a 3 hour drive from a camping trip with milky way nightime exposure.

Try it out! Enlist some of your hiking friends. They'll tell you where to go.

With the milky way it's the same thing as the auroras. I went camping in the middle of nowhere USA, and on a clear night you can absolutely not see the milkyway the way it's portrayed in photos. It looks waaaaaaaaay less clear. You need a very long exposure camera to see it the same way as on the internet. The only difference with Europe is that I saw more stars, but none of those nebulas.

Not entirely true, I was out hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and that was the best Milky Way view I’ve ever seen. It looked just like the crazy photos with millions of stars. Just laid on a rock staring at it for an hour

Go take some photos with your camera -- it will pick up brilliant colours from what looks like super dim/grey "clouds/glow" to our eyes :)

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