The Bucket List Holy Grail - The Northern Lights

Apr 21, 2025
2 min read

The aurora borealis, is a sky based phenomenon you would probably say you haven’t heard of before, except you probably have. More commonly known to all as ‘The Northern Lights’, the spectacular light display is considered one of the holy grails for those invested in travel and adventure & scientists alike.

Breathtaking right?

The more scientific sounding name was coined “aurora borealis” by Galileo in 1619 after the Roman Goddess of the morning. In old Norse mythology, the Northern Lights were known as “Bifrost”, and were commonly known to be a burning rainbow bridge between Midgard (Earth) and Åsgard (the realm of the gods). Today the name is not so exciting, though self explanatory.

As you can gather from the name, The Northern Lights appear in the northern hemisphere of the world. Arguably the most famous destination to see the phenomenon is Iceland, home to Reykjavík - the most northern capital on the planet. You can also see the Northern Lights in the northern parts of Sweden, Norway & Finland, northern parts of Canada & Alaska and Greenland. Essentially any country or part of a country that is close to the Arctic Circle.

Though they can also appear at lower latitudes on occasion. Particularly strong solar storms can result in the lights even being seen in Scotland and northern England. Solar storms you say? Unfortunately the lights are not a pure artistic accident or an act of God, science seems to always have the answers - *heads up* skip the next paragraph if you are not interested in the science behind the spectacle.

Activity on the Sun, in its Corona to be more precise - produces solar winds, and sends them flowing down to earth, energised particles slam into Earth's upper atmosphere. The earth's magnetic field redirects the particles towards the poles and this is where the reaction of the particles and gases happen, the dramatic process transforms into a cinematic atmospheric show that dazzles and fascinates scientists and travellers alike.

They do in fact occur year round, but as they are weaker than sunlight - May, June & July are generally off the cards for sightings of the light show. The best time to see the aurora borealis is up for debate. It is potentially visible under dark skies from late August to mid-April preferably under a clear, cloudless sky. November through to February offer the darkest skies and longer evenings for maximum sky-gazing. The strongest lights tend to appear between 9pm and 2am, though the best sightings often occur between 11pm and midnight.

The aurora display can appear like a celestial dancing spectacle in shades of red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Those eerie glows can also take many forms like beams of fluorescent light, small patches of mixing colours, clouds of colour, rippling curtains and dynamic rays. It is a truly beautiful display and a perfect example of the world giving us natural spectacles to gaze upon and appreciate in past, present and future.