The main part of the itinerary to Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland was to view the northern lights in Finland, as I have never personally witnessed this phenomenon — but Aurora Borealis might not have appeared due to weather and other factors.
Northern Lights in Finland. Aurora Borealis.
The first two nights of this trip were spent at Aurora Pyramids in Köngäs in Finland, at which each cabin had a large glass pyramid specifically for the purpose of viewing the northern lights from the comfort of being warm inside — but the cost per night was $401.83 total. With other available lodging options that were significantly less expensive, I gambled that we would be able to see Aurora Borealis for the first time by staying Aurora Pyramids.
Even though the night sky was clear on that first night of the itinerary, numerous sources predicted that the possibility of viewing Aurora Borealis was at a low percentage. Although I felt discouraged, I kept checking the sky through the glass pyramid from inside of the cabin.
The best time to see the northern lights was supposedly between 10:00 in the evening and 2:00 in the morning; and that one should face to the north for the best view of Aurora Borealis. I was already somewhat discouraged by the time 10:00 came around, as I saw no evidence of anything out of the ordinary.
11:00 arrived an hour later. I still saw nothing in the sky. I looked to the north just above the rooftops of the other cabins, hoping that maybe I could catch a glimpse of something.
Not long after that, I look through the glass pyramid toward the east and saw something. I wondered, “Is that a cloud?” It was gray in the night sky and certainly looked like a small cloud; but the bottom of it was bizarrely “fuzzy” — as though rain was falling from the cloud, which was highly unusual.
A quick photograph with a mobile telephone revealed that this small blob was showing glimmers of green. We immediately darted outside in the cool — but thankfully, not bitter cold — Arctic night.
That gamble of choosing Aurora Pyramids paid off handsomely — quite handsomely.
These first four photographs were taken within eight minutes.
Look north? Forget that. These northern lights were in every direction — especially directly overhead — and were they putting on a spectacular celestial show that these photographs do not do justice.
The above photograph was zoomed in; so the stars in the sky appear to be larger than normal.
Tinges of pink and purple and even blue and yellow occasionally joined the predominant green.
Even when the vibrant green color occasionally dulled towards gray, the patterns — or lack thereof — were still amazing.
I had never seen anything like this before in my entire life. I was mesmerized and in awe.
I attempted to take videos of Aurora Borealis — but the quality was not as good as the photographs. Still, this video showed how the northern lights changed within eight seconds.
What that cluster of purple lights were on the left in the above photograph remains a mystery to me. They must have been a reflection of something on the ground; but I do not believe that it was STEVE, which is an acronym for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
…nor do I believe that those purple spots were the result of the building whose roof was bathed in red light, as shown in the above photograph.
Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere of the Earth that are caused by the solar wind. As with snowflakes, no two aurora sightings are ever exactly the same.
The photograph above resembled what seemed like a green forest fire with green smoke emanating from it. These northern lights were mostly to the west of where I was located.
As the light show appeared to be winding down, we decided to view the rest of it from inside the comfort and warmth of the glass pyramid of the cabin.
Final Boarding Call
All I can say is that the money, effort, time, and energy to see the northern lights were all very well spent. Wow.
The best part is that because I saw Aurora Borealis on the first night of my trip, I was under no pressure to do everything I could to see them during the remainder of the trip — and that was fortunate, because weather and other conditions were not conducive to seeing the northern lights most of the other times during the trip.
Anything else for the remainder of the trip was simply icing on the cake or gravy or some other clichéd food analogy…
All photographs ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
