Thread: Northern Lights captured on film

Thanks for sharing..

I think that would win the next "night sky" comp

Mrs hh

Pictures and videos doesn't make the northern light justice. To see it live is an out of this world experience that all should experince at least once. The last time I saw a proper northern light was in the 90s. I may live in northern Sweden but not far north enough to see it frequently unfortunelly.

How far north are you? I was in Lulea during winter once, but the lights were not switched on.

I'm originally from Piteå, 45 km south of Luleå. But now I live in Umeå which is about 270 km south of Luleå.

I've seen some pretty spectacular ones in Piteå in the past. But you really increase the chance of spotting them the further north you get, preferably north of the Arctic Circle, and you need to get away from the major light pollution of cities.

I actually saw the northern lights in September. Then I was in Abisko, which is quite in the far north. But since it was still daylight/dusk it wasn't as visible as it would have been if the sky was pitch black.

What were you doing in Luleå? Exchange student? Did you fancy the winter there? The city planning in Luleå is a fiasco. The streets and blocks are in straight lines, which is great in a tropic country but not far north with water on all sides. IE you freeze to death by the winds during winter when walking the streets of Luleå.

I was a motoring journalist, there for the launch and test-drive of the Volvo XC90. They wanted us to have taste of driving on snow and ice. Also got to try a dog sled ride and snowmobile, pretty cool for a guy from the tropics. Or, should that be pretty cold?

Agree with Swedish Bloke, no image or film can do the Northern Lights justice. I've seen them in Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and also good displays of their counterparts in Antarctica, and Western Australia.

The first ones I saw were 20 odd years ago in Vinstra, a bit north of Lillehammer, Norway. I walked outside and across a nearby vacant lot and the whole sky was pulsating green and seemingly radiating from a hole almost overhead. Just phenomenal. I'll never forget the shiver it sent down my spine.

A decade later in Þórsmörk park in Iceland, I actually bivvied outside my tent in winter so I could see the northern lights in the sky. I woke up at about 2am to a whip of green, stretching from one horizon to the other. It was snaking around across the sky, the movement fast, yet so subtle that you can't actually see the instantaneous movement, you only realise it's moved when it's in a different spot. An absolutely unforgettable experience from the warmth of my sleeping bag, but with a cold nose .

And the last of these reminiscences takes me to Greenland. We were in a settlement called Qeternaternavit (I'd have to check that spelling!). We'd just had dinner of fresh raw seal with an inuit couple from the settlement then skied off across the frozen sea to our camp in the next fjord. When it was dark, a small northern lights display occurred above the nearby spectacular peaks. Their local beliefs explain the northern lights as the spirits of the unborn children playing in the heavens. Watching this display which was small and unusually quick moving, I swear that I could hear the shrill chatter of children permeating across the cold arctic night.