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Pristine-Donkey4698 t1_iu6vylp wrote

Reply to comment by xo_tea_jay in Image of northern lights I shot in Senja, Norway 2 weeks ago [1000 x 1500] [OC] by gudelaune

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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