How to See the Northern Lights (+Take a Picture of Aurora on Your Phone)!

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We recently came back from our trip to Norway, where we were super fortunate to see the Northern Lights. This year is one of the best year to see the Northern Light, due to Sun reaching its solar maximum. Long story short, the northern light (aurora borealis) are more visible and brighter during the high solar activity period compared to solar minimum. We are seeing this in the UK, as the northern lights display have been visible in England in the past year or so, which is very rare compared to the years before. So I decided to book trip to Norway, in the hopes of seeing auroras.

Auroras happen when charged particles from the sun collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Imagine our Earth as a giant magnet with invisible lines of force stretching from the North Pole to the South Pole. When these charged particles get caught in our planet’s magnetic field, they zoom towards the poles, where the magnetic field is strongest. As they crash into the gases in our atmosphere, like oxygen and nitrogen, they release energy in the form of colorful light. That’s what creates the stunning auroras we see, like nature’s very own light show! So, the next time you catch a glimpse of those shimmering curtains of light in the sky, remember it’s just a cosmic dance of particles and magnetism.

The Northern Light is notoriously unpredictable but there are a few things that you could do to maximise your chance of seeing one, especially if you have to travel:

• The Northern Light is only visible (to us on the Earth) on the dark skies. It’s still there during the summer or when the sun is shining, as it can be seen from space, but very difficult to see from the Earth. Hence it is only visible during winter in the North, between September to March. Remembering that the Winter Solstice is on December 21, we chose to go in January. Winter Solstice is the shortest daylight in the year, meaning that we have more dark skies in January compared to March or September.
• Go to the North. We chose to go to Tromso in Norway, because Tromso is in the centre of the northern lights’ oval, which means it is possible to see the Northern Lights even when the activity is low. If you are travelling specifically for the Northern Lights, I would recommend to go straight to Tromso instead of staying in Oslo, to maximise your chance.
• Cloudless night. Now, you don’t need 100% clear sky, but the clouds do hide the auroras. Sometimes, even a small opening in the sky is all you need. But if it’s completely cloudy, then it will not be possible to see the auroras.
• If possible, go for longer time. In Tromso, there were a few other activities, such as Husky Sledding, Reindeer Sledding and Feeding, Whale and bird watching and some other things. Despite coming during the worst storm Norway saw in 30 years, we did some Reindeer Feeding! It was super interesting as we also learned a LOT about Sami cultures. Some of these activities such as the Reindeer Sledding and Husky Sledding can be at night, at which you may have also more chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Now, in the interest of transparency, our husky sledding and whale watching tour was cancelled, but I went to the Reindeer Sledding and Feeding tour and it was really good. I will write it on a separate post, but the tour that I went and I linked above is owned by Sami people so the proceeds go straight to them, so I highly recommend that you book it with this exact tour.
• Learn on how to do long exposure on your smartphone! The picture above are taken by my Samsung S22 so yes it is definitely possible to take picture of auroras using your smartphone, but you do need to use the long exposure mode on your smartphone. Sometimes, like in my case, it’s called night mode. You then will have to hold still for a few seconds. If you can lengthen the exposure time, you’ll get brighter picture. Learn in advance so you don’t have to do this while you stand in complete darkness outside with a temperature of -20C!
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I highly recommend you book a Northern Lights Tour to maximise your chance.

• The tour are in communication with other guides, and they’ll tell each other where it’s cloudy and when it’s not. When we went, the weather report says the clouds will move away around 10 pm, but it didn’t, so our tour drove us to another location where the tour guide in that place says it was clearer than where we are.
• Good tours will be willing to drove us to Finland and Sweden if necessary to see the northern lights. Our tour guide requested we took our passports in case we cross the border.
• The tours have experience in finding auroras. When we first saw it, it was very faint, so I couldn’t even tell by my bare eyes but my phone camera could see it. I wouldn’t know it was the aurora if no one told us. However, when it was much brighter later during the night, it was quite obvious.
• Tromso is in the Arctic Circle, so it was all snowy and icy. Now, if you live in similar conditions, then power to you. ut I live in England where everything turned into chaos the moment it snows, so I didn’t feel safe driving in the middle of nowhere with piles of snows and icy road.
• To maximise your chance, you do need to get out of Tromso city centre (as there is a lot of light) – so these tours provide a means to go out to a remote place.

I went with this tour, which I highly recommend. We were picked up in town, and then we were driven outside of Tromso city centre. We waited around for a bit, because the weather forecast predicted the clouds to open around 10 pm, so we sat around a fire and having some hot chocolate. Now, some people weren’t really happy that we were staying still considering it’s cloudy, so there was a little commosion going on, and I just went away on my own to walk around. But then around 9:30 they were told that the southern part has better sky visibility (less cloud), so off we went (highlighting the importance of going on a tour!). We first saw a glimpse of the aurora on the side of the road, of which I got very excited. I wouldn’t have known if someone hadn’t told me, but my phone caught the we drove off to another location where we saw a SPECTACULAR view of aurora! What a night!

Wishing you a luck to see the Northern Light too!

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