Thread: Are the lights out?

The Northern Light that is.

We can't make them appear with the flick of a switch, but Fairbanks can provide one of the best spots on earth to see them. Beautiful and mysterious curtains, the colors range from green to red to purple, with the brightest and most common color, a yellow-green. Fairbanks sits under what is called the auroral oval, a ring-shaped region around the North Pole. Their location offers a great balance of occurrence, frequency and activity. Intensity varies from night to night, with the best viewing from late evening through the wee hours of the morning, late August to April.

See the Northern Lights from a heated "aurorium" cabin, on an overnight dog sled trip, by snow cat tour to a panoramic vista, on a horse drawn sleigh, or on a flight above the Arctic Circle. Ask the front desk of your hotel for a wake-up call; if the aurora appears, they will awaken you. No guarantees, but the longer you're there, the better your chances of seeing a great display.

Of the 2 nights I was in Fairbanks, I got the wake up call 1 night and they were out but not much of a glow to them. I was there August 28 - 30, 2003.

Wonder what the prime time of year is for the northern lights - Anyone know?

Originally Posted by Cruise Princess

Intensity varies from night to night, with the best viewing from late evening through the wee hours of the morning, late August to April.

Here ya go.

Thanks for the information, Cruise Princess!

Kind of messes with the cruising dates. You can't cruise during the best time to see the Northern Lights. Bummer.

Ruth -

99% of the time you could never see the Northern Lights from a cruise ship anyways. You can only see the northern lights the further north you go in Alaska, and since most cruise ships only ever go to Southeast Alaska, its not nearly far enough to see the Northern Lights

We see the lights here in Juneau all the time... problem with cruise season is there's too much daylight in the summer... in order to see N. lights it's got to be DARK. The farther north you can go the better.

There are some great light displays in places like Bethel, Tooksook Bay and on Nunivak Island, but there's not exactly what you'd call a booming tourism industry there!

Oh, and most importantly, to see the lights, get away from big cities. The darker it is the better, and you'd be amazed at how much light is generated by even a small town. If anyone remembers the most recent appearance of Halley's comet, the advice there was to get away from city lights...

-Case