Aurora watching

[mattbell]

I'm thinking it would be fun to spend a few days watching the aurora borealis. People who've seen it put it on par with total eclipses as far as being one of the most incredible nature-related experiences of their lives.

I've been doing some research into it and have found the following:

- The weather is not totally reliable and the *space* weather is also not totally reliable, so it's best to go for at least 4 days. You need no clouds + a certain aurora strength.
- Airfares have gone up a bit since last year. Roundtrip to Fairbanks is around $650, roundtrip to Reykjavik is around $1000.
- It's very cold. And dark. Duh.
- Reykjavik is more interesting than Fairbanks from a cultural perspective, but these still seems to be a decent bit of stuff to do in Fairbanks. However, I think, like Burning Man, part of the appeal of the trip is meeting the sort of people who would fly out to see an aurora instead of, say, Hawaii.

Hey, if any of you are interested in joining me, let me know. I'm planning on doing this sometime between this November and next March, and probably not in December-January, when it's the coldest and darkest.

Comments

[avani.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely interested.

Airfare to Reykjavik may be pricey, but remember that lodging and the like will be cheaper, and Reykjavik is a much neater city. We might even be able to watch the aurora from one of the geothermal pools outside the city :-)

[(Anonymous)]

The aurora borealis is amazing. There is nothing like standing in a field as the waves of light brush just a hair's breadth away from your outstretched fingers, and the air seems to crackle with energy. It is definitely worth the airfare and lodging.

(BTW: I saw the Northern Lights in Sweden. I almost exclusively saw green, with a couple streaks of blue and yellow. Red is extremely rare.)

[akienm.livejournal.com]

I definitely can NOT do it in the timeframe you're talking about, for financial reasons. But if I could afford it, I'd so be there. Perhaps some future time I'll go...

book

[catithat.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read it yet, I think you'll like this book. It's an adventure biography of a scientist doing dangerous experiments to test why the lights happen. And other stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Lights-Lucy-Jago/dp/0375708820

[tinkerbell-mk.livejournal.com]

When I was in Reykjavik in March I saw the northern lights and I totally agree, it was awesome! Completely worth seeing! But in my 6 nights in Reykjavik the aurora borealis was only visible one night. So if it's the primary motivator of your trip I would highly recommend spending more than 4 nights. Also, avani mentioned that expenses in Iceland will likely be cheaper than Fairbanks. I've never been to Fairbanks but I highly doubt this to be true. Even post currency colapse (which is when I was there) Iceland was a very expensive country. (More expensive than the US.) And looking at hotels.com for a totally random price comparison the hotels in Fairbanks seem to be cheaper.

That said Iceland was really really awesome and I think you should go there.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I went to Reykjavik for three days several years ago, in February. Given the fact that Iceland is right in the middle of the gulf stream, it's not that cold (the temperature I believe is often actually quite similar to New York), but it turns out to be very rainy and snowy and cloudy. I don't know whether there's any time period during the winter where you can reliably expect to have at least one non-cloudy day. I believe I did see the northern lights briefly when I was on the plane over Greenland or Canada, but given that I only saw it while briefly waking up in between some sleep, I'm not certain. I do have a picture I took with my camera, but it's totally black, because presumably the lights are not very bright, and airplane windows aren't the best. But that suggests that I did in fact see it and didn't just dream seeing it.

I really want to see it some time (again) though! I suspect Fairbanks or some other continental place will be more likely to be non-cloudy.

Do you expect to run into aurora-goers in these places? I suspect in Fairbanks you'll mainly just run into locals and university students (who I guess are locals), and in Reykjavik you'll run into locals and partiers, especially given the deals that Iceland Air has to increase tourism. Since there's not a specific moment to go, the way there is for an eclipse, there won't be that same communal vibe, I would guess.