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Northern Light's ( Aurora Borealis )

canadiancruiser13

By canadiancruiser13,
in Alaska

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Shmoo here

Shmoo here

Posted
Posted (edited)
Would like to know if any fellow cruiser's have seen the Northern Light's (Aurora Borealis) during any sailings to Alaska in June?

 

My DW and I have booked an Alaskan cruise for June 2015.

 

You need dark nights to see the aurora borealis. In June there aren't many dark hours. Plus most cruiseline don't go far enough north to be in an area to see them. You typically have to do a land tour that takes you further north and then you have a chance (slightly)to see them later in September.

 

Here's a link you can use to see the forecast for where the aurora will be most visible.

 

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Alaska/

Edited by Shmoo here
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pbsteve

pbsteve

Posted
Posted

It's all up to the sun and solar flares. Winter is usually best to watch, since in the summer, and especially June, the daylight lasts longer, making night time brighter than in winter. But you can still see them sometimes in the summer, but less of a chance.

 

 

Here is a link that shows what time sunset is, and sunrise by day, and by city so you have an idea of when you can see them, and it'll only be for 3 hours max when the sun is down and the sky is dark.

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bottom-dragger

bottom-dragger

Posted
Posted

will you be told you can't see them? yes, by people that were here for 7 days and didn't go outside after dark or by those that read (and believe) a lot on the net.

 

can you see them? yes, i live 100' feet from saltwater so i'm not way inland. i live in the middle of SE so i'm no where near Fairbanks. but we do see the lights year round. not routine and not the type that make the cover of National Geographic. They were visible in august the night of the 'super moon'.

 

will you see them? probably not, i doubt many are committed enough to be out midnight to 2 am every night just to check. i used to have a woman on my field crew that would drink a cup of tea before bedtime so she'd get up to "go" outside each night.

 

they're more common than unicorns. more rare than cheechakos.

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Shipbound

Shipbound

Posted
Posted (edited)

I went to Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan I saw the Northern lights in Sept/Oct. Like one of the posts said it has to be very dark in order to see them, June would be still to light to see them but when you do they are beautiful.

 

Gary

Edited by Shipbound
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Glaciers

Glaciers

Posted
Posted (edited)

There may be someone out there but I've not heard of anyone seeing the lights in June. The window of darkness is very small, there would need to be no cloud cover and you'd need to be lucky enough that were were lights at all.

 

End of the season cruisers this year have been fortunate. The lights have been active this fall.

Edited by Glaciers
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Glaciers

Glaciers

Posted
Posted

Received this last night through the aurora notification system. Looks there may be a good showing. Possibly in the lower 48 as well.

 

The effects of a solar event facing roughly toward Earth, on the 9th

of September, should reach Earth around midnight on September 11th UT.

Another, larger event, also facing Earth, occurred on September

10th, and it should have higher velocity. The effects of the latter

event may therefore reach Earth at the same time. Even if it is

later, disturbances should be large and last long enough to result in

increased auroral activity for the next three to five days.

 

The result is that aurora watchers should monitor the Current Auroral

Activity on the forecast website or watch

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/ for the next five days. We will

post more accurate predictions or descriptions of conditions when the

results of more solar observations become available.

 

Note that we do not expect the aurora to exceed index = 5 or 6 on our

scale because the magnetosphere has been relatively quiet. However,

conditions such as these could lead to auroras observed from the

middle or southern states.

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Northern Aurora

Northern Aurora

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There's a storm headed our way. You and laughing husky may get another good show tonight.

 

We are receiving new coverage on that storm, and I heard the Alaska News Nightly extensive story this evening on our NPR station

+. Hope all in south-central are "battening down the hatches."

 

Today Fairbanks was clear and sunny, with great views of the Alaska Range from our house on Chena Ridge. But I looked outside a few minutes ago and we are starting to cloud over. So all those photographers seeking great aurora photos may be disappointed tonight.

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1153rsmith

1153rsmith

Posted
Posted
The display last night in Fairbanks was wonderful -- good color intensity and a great amount of movement.

 

Can someone post some pics? We saw them last week in Talkeetna. They weren't real intense and only the greens, but we saw them! One of the things that made our trip.

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PNW Traveler

PNW Traveler

Posted
Posted

Disembarked the Solstice yesterday, September 12. We were well within the forecasted range for the Northern Lights during the latter part of our cruise. Unfortunately, the moon was very bright and full during this time. Many of us stayed up very late and/or set alarm clocks in order to view the lights. All were disappointed.

We are back home in Seattle and hoping to catch the fringe of the lights this week.

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1153rsmith

1153rsmith

Posted
Posted
Nice, thanks for posting the pictures.

Apparently some officers saw the lights on our cruise

last week but didn't have a camera.

 

On our ship, you could get on a list for a wake up call if they came out. We also did that at the hotel. That is how I was able to get these pictures. I was out cold when the call came, so without that, we would have never seen them.

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retiring soon

retiring soon

Posted
Posted

HI all!

 

1153rsmith ~ wow, that was very nice of them to do that!! What ship was it?

 

Every night if I wake up around 4'ish I check for them but never see any.:(

Hopefully some day I will. I bought a nice picture of them at Icy Strait Point & some cards of them at the museum in Anchorage.

 

~ Jo ~:)

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1153rsmith

1153rsmith

Posted
Posted
HI all!

 

1153rsmith ~ wow, that was very nice of them to do that!! What ship was it?

 

Every night if I wake up around 4'ish I check for them but never see any.:(

Hopefully some day I will. I bought a nice picture of them at Icy Strait Point & some cards of them at the museum in Anchorage.

 

~ Jo ~:)

 

We were on the Island Princess, but didn't see the northern lights on it. My pictures were taken at the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge and they did the wake up call also. It came in about 2am and when I answered, they just said the northern lights are out. I am so thankful they did that.

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