Hacker News Reader

Comment by exodust | Hacker News Reader

> nobody wants to see a video or a photo of a dark, gray, and barely visible aurora

Except those who want to see an accurate representation of what it looks like to the naked eye.

Living in northern Sweden I see the northern lights multiple times a year. I have never seen them pale or otherwise not colorful. Green and reds always. That is to my naked eye. Photographs do look more saturated, but the difference isn't as large as this comment thread make it out to be.

That mirrors my experience from when I used to live in northern Canada

Even in Upper Michigan near Lake Superior we sometimes had stunn, colorful Northern Lights. Sometimes it seemed like they were flying overhead within your grasp

Most definitely, it's quite common to find people hanging around outside up towards Calumet whenever there's a night with a high KP Index.

I highly recommend checking them out if you're nearby, the recent auoras have been quite astonishing

Even in Northern Scotland (further south than northern Sweden) this is the case. The latest aurora showing was vividly colourful to the naked eye.

In the upper peninsula of michigan I have only seen grey.

That is the same latitude as Paris though, not very north at all.

I'm in Australia where the southern lights are known to be not as intense as northern lights. That's where my remark comes from. Those who have never seen the aurora with their own eyes may like to see an accurate photo. A rare find among the collective celebration of saturation.

Exactly. I went through major gas lighting trying to see the Aurora. I just wasn't sure whether I was actually seeing it, because it always looked so different from the photos. It is absolutely maddening trying to find a realistic photo of what it looks like to the naked eye, so that you can know if what you are seeing is actually the Aurora and not just clouds

Reply on news.ycombinator.com