Northern Lights

Diamnd15

Diamnd15

Well-Known Member
i saw a really nice photo on airliners.net, of a 747 flying near the northern lights and it was just beatiful. i was wondering if anyone knew of any flights that regulary flew by them...or what major airpots you can fly into to go see them...thanks
 
I flew LAS to YYC in mid-'04. FO and I watched the lights for 2+ hours. Unfortunately, since they were in front of us, the pax only got to see them for the last 30 minutes, when they were finally over us.
 
.....yaaaaawwwwwnnnnnn......


i see them all the time

just kidding i guess

i used to see them a lot when i was flying between anc-hom and anc-ena

i have a new base now ... don't ever see them... now i am in bed
 
yeah that was the pic alright...thanks for all the replies i think im just guna try taking any flight into anc in the future...do you guys know what time of year is best to go and see them...im learning about them in my astronomy class so its just great to relate it to aviation.
 
Winter. The best I've seen is near Hudson Bay, although I have seen some good displays enroute from Asia to ANC. The ANC-EWR route can be good for Hudson bay. Probably some others too.
 
Believe it or not I saw them coming out of CLT northbound last year. It was rare to see them that far south. Quite cool. But not as cool as me in a 2 striped sweater and some sex panther.
 
Those are the Aurora Borealis :)

We have them here in North Dakota quite often. I remember seeing them on one flight in a Piper Warrior back from Duluth - I was all by myself and it was an amazing view.

Keep in mind that the photographer most likely used an SLR camera with a super slow shutter speed (probably 20-30 seconds) and held the camera with extreme stillness (is that a word?). I took pics of the aurora with my point-and-shoot Canon A70 on a tripod and had the shutter speed set to 15 seconds (it's maximum) and ISO at 400. It still didn't do much justice. You can see the pics at http://jasonevart.com/aurora if you want to see. So... the reality is, the northern lights are NOT as bright as that picture portrays them to be. It's just a nice photography trick - that picture for sure is an amazing piece of work!

If you'd like an Aurora Borealis forecast, the NOAA puts out a forecast:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap
 
Diamnd15 said:
yeah that was the pic alright...thanks for all the replies i think im just guna try taking any flight into anc in the future...do you guys know what time of year is best to go and see them...im learning about them in my astronomy class so its just great to relate it to aviation.
Click to expand...

From what I've learned in Meteorology class, the best time to see them on the North Dakota area latitude is Spring and Fall.
 
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