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The Northern Lights


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Seen them 3 or 4 times

 

1st time- when I was 12 camping at a lake in Central Ontario , only a lightening of the northern horizon really(mostly green and white)

 

2nd time when I was 27 in Fernie BC, with Mt Hosmer backlit by the Northern Lights full on dancing waves of green and white facing north

 

3rd time- (28) Rossland BC, most impressive completly filled the sky reds blues and greens ,waves and tendrils lasted for 2 hrs

 

4th time - (33)Thunder Bay Ontario, during university , heard yelling in the back yard went out to find the african exchange student losing his mind, hahahaha kept yelling " are you fucking kidding me?" hehehe

 

they can be very awe inspiring, and very conducive to pot smoking and fungi ingesting

Edited by tooner
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Seen them 3 or 4 times

 

1st time- when I was 12 camping at a lake in Central Ontario , only a lightening of the northern horizon really(mostly green and white)

 

2nd time when I was 27 in Fernie BC, with Mt Hosmer backlit by the Northern Lights full on dancing waves of green and white facing north

 

3rd time- Rossland BC, most impressive completly filled the sky reds blues and greens ,waves and tendrils lasted for 2 hrs

 

4th time - Thunder Bay Ontario, during university , heard yelling in the back yard went out to find the african exchange student losing his mind, hahahaha kept yelling " are you fucking kidding me?" hehehe

 

they can be very awe inspiring, and very conducive to pot smoking and fungi ingesting

 

 

Lucky bugger, went to Ontario and didnt see any. :D Mind it was summer. :D

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Seen them 3 or 4 times

 

1st time- when I was 12 camping at a lake in Central Ontario , only a lightening of the northern horizon really(mostly green and white)

 

2nd time when I was 27 in Fernie BC, with Mt Hosmer backlit by the Northern Lights full on dancing waves of green and white facing north

 

3rd time- (28) Rossland BC, most impressive completly filled the sky reds blues and greens ,waves and tendrils lasted for 2 hrs

 

4th time - (33)Thunder Bay Ontario, during university , heard yelling in the back yard went out to find the african exchange student losing his mind, hahahaha kept yelling " are you fucking kidding me?" hehehe

 

they can be very awe inspiring, and very conducive to pot smoking and fungi ingesting

 

 

there fixed it :D

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Seen them 3 or 4 times

 

1st time- when I was 12 camping at a lake in Central Ontario , only a lightening of the northern horizon really(mostly green and white)

 

2nd time when I was 27 in Fernie BC, with Mt Hosmer backlit by the Northern Lights full on dancing waves of green and white facing north

 

3rd time- Rossland BC, most impressive completly filled the sky reds blues and greens ,waves and tendrils lasted for 2 hrs

 

4th time - Thunder Bay Ontario, during university , heard yelling in the back yard went out to find the african exchange student losing his mind, hahahaha kept yelling " are you fucking kidding me?" hehehe

 

they can be very awe inspiring, and very conducive to pot smoking and fungi ingesting

 

 

Lucky bugger, went to Ontario and didnt see any. :D Mind it was summer. :D

first time was summer, 4th time was fall just before thanksgiving iirc

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the time in rossland was during a halloween party i was dancing and getting down with my girlfriend we looked around and no one was inside anymore so we wandered out fornt of the hall and everyone was standing out front ooooing and ahhhing, must have looked pretty funny because evryone was in costume necks craning upward.

 

anyone from down-unda seen the southern lights?

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

 

My dad told me the same but again in the days before light pollution.

 

Occasionally I think you can also get to see them in northern Scotland, problem is nobody knows exactly when they will show.

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

 

My dad told me the same but again in the days before light pollution.

 

Occasionally I think you can also get to see them in northern Scotland, problem is nobody knows exactly when they will show.

Aye, you do up in Scotland apparently. Not like the pictures you posted but like the first time Tooner says he saw them I think. That Joanna Lumley programme was good btw.

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Go In Search Of The Northern Lights Of Old Aberdeen

 

"When I was a lad, a tiny wee lad,

My mother said to me,

‘Come see the Northern Lights my boy,

They’re bright as they can be!’

She called them the heavenly dancers,

Merry dancers in the sky,

I’ll never forget, that wonderful sight

They made the heavens bright!"

 

So goes the chorus of one of Scotland’s best loved songs, The Northern Lights Of Old Aberdeen.

 

The Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis to give them their scientific name, are spectacular light shows that take place when solar flares collide with the Earth’s magnetic field and ionosphere. Red, green, blue and violet colours light up the night sky over the Arctic in what is an incredible display of nature’s beauty.

 

The closer you are to the Arctic, the better chance you have of seeing the Northern Lights. And although they can occur at any time, perfect viewing conditions demand clear weather and a dark sky.

 

The Northern Lights are a regular feature of the night sky from the Autumn through to Spring in the north of Scotland where they are known as Fir Chlis which means Nimble Man in Scots Gaelic or Merry Dancers. The further north you can travel the better, not least because the Highlands are lightly populated and light pollution from towns and cities is not a problem.

 

You can’t go further north in the British Isles than to Dunnett Head. Here you can stay in John O’Groats Self Catering Cottage (telephone 01729 851 181) during the winter for £195 a week and £125 for a three day break.

 

The Hebrides, a group of islands off the north west coast of Scotland are another good place to enjoy a break and to maybe see the Northern Lights. The Atlantic winds ensure relatively clear skies on crisp winter nights, perfect for both star gazing and for seeing the Lights.

 

Over on the east coast, the Moray Firth is widely regarded as one of the best places in Britain to see the Northern Lights. The seaside town of Nairn is a great wee place to call home during your quest to see the Aurora.

 

As for Aberdeen itself, light pollution is a bigger problem today than it was when The Northern Lights Of Old Aberdeen was first sung, but the Granite City does have its own planetarium at Aberdeen College (telephone 01224 612 130) should the Lights prove elusive!

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

 

My dad told me the same but again in the days before light pollution.

 

Occasionally I think you can also get to see them in northern Scotland, problem is nobody knows exactly when they will show.

Aye, you do up in Scotland apparently. Not like the pictures you posted but like the first time Tooner says he saw them I think. That Joanna Lumley programme was good btw.

 

Did she do a program about the lights?

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

 

My dad told me the same but again in the days before light pollution.

 

Occasionally I think you can also get to see them in northern Scotland, problem is nobody knows exactly when they will show.

Aye, you do up in Scotland apparently. Not like the pictures you posted but like the first time Tooner says he saw them I think. That Joanna Lumley programme was good btw.

 

Did she do a program about the lights?

Aye, basically the idea behind it was she'd had this story book when she was a little kid about them and she'd always wanted to see them. She went to Norway in search of them and got some vague glimpses whilst travelling around in search of them before eventually seeing this really spectacular display one night.

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

They were visible as far south as Rome in the '50s, due to unusual solar conditions.

 

I'm not an expert like, it just happened to be on one of the QI repeats on Dave the other night.

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

They were visible as far south as Rome in the '50s, due to unusual solar conditions.

 

I'm not an expert like, it just happened to be on one of the QI repeats on Dave the other night.

Is that right? Canny mad that like.

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Would love to go and see the Northern Lights. I bet it's fucking nippy though. My Grandad reckoned you sometimes saw them in the N.E. years ago before you had all the light pollution you get now. He liked a whisky though, so...

They were visible as far south as Rome in the '50s, due to unusual solar conditions.

 

I'm not an expert like, it just happened to be on one of the QI repeats on Dave the other night.

Is that right? Canny mad that like.

:D

The last solar maximum was in 2001, and the next one has been predicted for May, 2013. On March 10, 2006 NASA researchers announced that the next cycle would be the strongest since the historic maximum in 1958 in which the northern lights could be seen as far south as Rome, approximately 42° north of the equator. This projection was based on research done by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and David Hathaway of the National Space Science & Technology Center (NSSTC). As of May 2009, NOAA predicts the Solar maximum for cycle 24 will be below average.
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I'd love to see the Northern lights (or indeed the Southern ones). Trouble is, they're never guaranteed. And obviously, you only see them in winter, when the chances are it will be total cloud cover (which was the case when I went to Iceland). I think you can maximise your chances by going when the sun is at its greatest activity (its on a 7 year cycle and correlates to sunspot activity).

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