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xo_tea_jay t1_iu60wkn wrote

I really want to see this someday

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Jazzy_Bee t1_iu69nqc wrote

I hope you do. It is a very moving experience. Lucky enough to have seen them twice up in Yellowknife.

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Still_No_Tomatoes t1_iu6r8cc wrote

Is there like a best Season or time to see them? Or is it going on all the time?

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_Lane_ t1_iu728qa wrote

Lots of folks seem to have success at night, so I'd probably recommend that.

(Sorry, it was too easy, and no one else had grabbed it.)

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Jazzy_Bee t1_iu72j3n wrote

Late Fall to early Spring. I got lucky with a great green show in May, and again in August, but this time just white. Was passenger in a car with a moon roof, so just laid my seat back and enjoyed the show. These visits were 10 years apart.

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you_always_do t1_iu75boo wrote

Is it as green with your naked eye?

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Jazzy_Bee t1_iu7czqb wrote

The night I saw them, they were more vividly green than this, no blues, more emerald green I guess you'd call it. Someone left the bar, and came back in to tell us. Many of the people went out to watch, (and have a smoke). They looked like curtains and filled the whole sky.

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you_always_do t1_iu7seie wrote

Were your eyes well acclimated to the dark? I saw them a couple of times, grey wisps at first and then they turn greener as eyes acclimate to the dark. But I've never seen them he bright or extremely vivid green

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pazimpanet t1_iu6wmvu wrote

While what the other guy said is true, the brightness and colors are exaggerated in photos they don’t capture one thing about them. How they dance. The way that they move across the sky is mesmerizing. They don’t drift solidly like clouds like you might imagine. Dance really is the best word for it, they almost squirm like a worm or a giant snake across the sky.

I very much hope you do get to see them. They were on my bucket list and I almost missed them, but they came out bright literally my last night in Iceland.

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SummerAndTinkles t1_iu73r3h wrote

Just go to Principal Skinner's kitchen.

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xo_tea_jay t1_iu7b2s4 wrote

that took a second for me, but that was amazing. thank you for the giggle.

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Brave_Reaction t1_iu7wimf wrote

Seymour! The house is on fire!

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shayna16 t1_iu852ed wrote

No Mother, it’s just the northern lights!

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kipj23 t1_iu876xz wrote

Aurora Borealis!? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen!?

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Beetkiller t1_iu86ou0 wrote

Norwegian krone is weak and USD is strong now, almost 20% discount.

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Pristine-Donkey4698 t1_iu6vylp wrote

It does not look like this in person, only in pictures. When I was at Glacier National we saw the northern lights. It was just a green glow. Then my buddy shows me the pictures he took with long exposure and it looked incredible.

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EmSixTeen t1_iu721jx wrote

It can look pretty close to this in person, especially given that 8 year cycle of solar activity is beginning to peak again.

I lived close to here for years.

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[deleted] t1_iu7by04 wrote

[deleted]

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AxeCow t1_iu8mshi wrote

> Stay in Alaska for winter, and you’ll understand. > > > > They can look like this. They don’t always look like this, but it’s not uncommon. Glacier is ‘North’ to you, but not to others.

And even the populated parts of Alaska, funnily enough, aren’t all that north (if you’re talking about Anchorage, Fairbanks etc.) when compared to northern Norway like where this picture was taken.

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MagicalUnicornFart t1_iuaaewz wrote

It’s a latitude thing :)

Light pollution can be a problem, but it’s not too far to get away from it.

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gudelaune OP t1_iu7zarp wrote

yes it does, this was shot in the arctic, not Glacier national park lol. While I do agree it's very faint where I live in Banff, the sky looks pretty much identical here. I take it you've never been to northern Norway?

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Beetkiller t1_iu86yal wrote

Glacier National park is 48 degrees North, same as Paris. People would laugh at you if you said the northern lights in Paris were nothing like photos.

Senja is at 67 degrees.

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AxeCow t1_iu8m96r wrote

Correction: Senja is 69 degrees northern latitude.

I reside at 65 degrees north latitude, and even here northern lights are relatively boring, mostly green and not super bright. From my experience they really get nice only above the arctic circle which is currently around 66.5 degrees north. Senja is pretty much as good as it gets without having to go to Svalbard.

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Beetkiller t1_iu8nsey wrote

> Correction: Senja is 69 degrees northern latitude.

Right, I probably should have known that Senja doesn't lay just north of the article circle. I just googled and picked the top response summary.

Our northern lights research center lays just west of Senja, and it's where I saw northern lights that makes this photo look muted.

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PikkNakke t1_iu87jxe wrote

They vary a lot in intensity and can definetely look like the picture.

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oldmanconway t1_iu84m6v wrote

The strength is measured using the KP-index. What you probably witnessed was a one or two on the scale. It goes up to nine. From four and up it pretty much looks the same on camera as IRL, allthough any picture will always be adjusted to some degree - it's not unique to northern lights photography.

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