blossomsuz,

It's very hit and miss with the northern lights and you're open to the mercy of atmospheric conditions. I spent a week in Lappish Finland, well north of the artic circle last December hoping to see them but the weather was too warm and cloudy (we had nearly 18 inches of snow through the week!). When I say too warm, it averaged -9 celsius, but the locals reccon it needs to be at least -20 for them to see it with very clear skies. Anywhere north of Scotland through the winter months you can see them, given the right conditions and Iceland is as good as anywhere. I was told the northern lights appear on average every 3 days through the winter months if the weather is right so the longer you spend in the area, the better really. I might be taking a flight in December up towards Iceland to see the northern lights since we didn't manage to see them in Finland so fingers crossed!

Darren

Anywhere north of Scotland through the winter months you can see them, given the right conditions

And under the right conditions we can even see them here in Scotland! It used to be possible to subscribe to an automatic email message service run by Lancaster University that issued alerts for when you stood a good chance of seeing the Aurora but they had to discontinue it as a result of cuts in their funding. Your best chance of seeing them is when there is a lot of solar flare activity on the Sun and this tends to be cyclical. You could be in luck this year because activity is building from now until early 2012. the best time to see them up here is not the dead of winter but tends to be around the autumn and spring equinoxes simply because we are more likely to have settled weather with the necessary clear night skies at those times.

SM

Good news for Aurora watchers! The automatic email alert system provided by Lancaster University is up and running again.

Click on the link below to register:

http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch/cgi-bin/subscribe

SM

I received an email from them yesterday, the first time in a couple of years, but it was a false red alert.

luci

but it was a false red alert

which was apparently

due to man-made disturbance at our Lancaster field site.

The mind boggles at what that 'disturbance might have been!

SM