Aurora borealis or Northern lights (for us in the northern hemisphere) is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow. The northern lights can range from a simple green faint flow over the horizon to a bright “curtain” of lights dancing above you (and bright enough to cast a shadow like full moon). I did not realize until recently that this is a bucket list item for many people, so in this post I’m going to share my experience chasing aurora.
First to see the aurora, you need to have a clear, dark night. It implies being far away from civilization to avoid any light pollution. The dark night is a bit tricky since you need to be “in range” of the aurora. Auroras develop daily at the poles and depending of the intensity (i.e the number of particles coming from the sun), it can be visible at lower latitude. For example, on November 14th 2013, here was where the aurora was predicted to be visible over Alaska.
Aurora Forecast by the University of Alaska for November 14th.
Based on the map, the aurora band was between 57 and 65 degrees north. Based on those data, we chose Fairbanks as our home base as it’s relatively easy to get to and it’s already in the “band”.
During Summer, one of the major issues with being so up north is a phenomenon called “the midnight sun”. As its name explains it, the sun is visible at midnight and there is no dark night, only dusk and dawn. I recommend at least 12 hours of night to get a good chance to see the aurora. At the Faibanks’ latitude, it’s roughly between October 1st and March 15th.
Another major factor in your ability to witness the aurora is your need of a clear sky! Like any astronomical photo, you need to be able to see the stars in order to really see the aurora. It is possible to see the green glow through the clouds (if the clouds are relatively thin and the aurora powerful enough), but it’s far from ideal. Generally I look at the historical weather data to see which month has the lowest average precipitation. Average precipitation can be low and yet you still have clouds (San Francisco, where I live, is a very good example of that) but it’s a good approximation. Fairbanks get only 0.27in of average precipitation in March (the lowest of the year).
Now that we have narrowed down the period and the location: beginning of March and near Fairbanks, AK, the last check was to take into account the moon and try to avoid the full moon as much as possible. The full moon would decrease the perceived intensity of the aurora making our photos more difficult to take. In our case the full moon was on March 8, 2012, so we planned our stay from March 14th to March 23rd.
Last point, auroras are really like any weather-related event, it does not have a time schedule. Some nights, we had no auroras until 1am or 2am. Sometimes, we had great auroras right after sunset and then it faded away not to return. Be prepared to wait for the aurora and never give up, we had amazing lights 2 hours before sunrise.
Now that you know that to see auroras, you need to go to Alaska in March, let’s talk weather for a bit. Since auroras are only visible at night, it’s a good guess that you will spend most of your nights watching the sky (unless it’s cloudy and then you can sleep). It’s way colder during the night than during the day. The average temperature is between 11F (max) and -1F (min), so it’s cold and unless you are an experienced cold weather person, you don’t have the right gear for it. Don’t make my mistake and buy winter gear from a store not located in Alaska (or a place not located at the same latitude), it will not keep you warm. Wait until you get to Fairbanks, find one of the numerous outdoor gear stores and they will set you up. For example, did you know you can buy coveralls that are rated for -120F and are oil and acid resistant?
Let’s talk lodging for a bit. Our goal was really to take pictures of the aurora, so we did elect to camp in remote area to have the best conditions possible. Camping in March in Alaska is not for everybody and I don’t recommend it. The advantage of camping are obvious: you have everything you need for sleeping, eating, staying warm with you. We had dinner while waiting for the auroras, we grabbed hot drinks when we were getting cold. We even slept a bit waiting for the aurora to get stronger. Since there is a lot of waiting, it’s very handy to have your sleeping bag right next to your camera tripod and be able to catch some sleep. If you are not prepared to do this, we found a great hotel 60 miles from Fairbanks (Chena hot spring resort) that has a heated hut to watch the aurora. In addition, it has an amazing hot spring pool (open to everyone, so we tried it). You can even borrow a warm parka from the hotel to go watch the aurora. If you really want to see some northern lights and don’t want to be cold, this is the way to go. Disclaimer: I have no relationship with Chena Resort, we stumbled upon it while driving and we liked it. Here is a couple pictures of Chena Resort including the hot spring pool and the dog sled tour you can take.
In term of photographic gear you need to take pictures of aurora, it’s very similar of what you need to take pictures of the milky way. I went with a 24mm f/1.4 L. I was shooting wide-open (1.4 or 1.8) at ISO 3200 for 6s to get some of those images. If your camera has low noise with high ISO you can get away with a 2.8 lens. I like to be able to shoot with my lens not fully wide open to have a better image quality. The thing to remember is that you will use high ISO, so don’t be afraid to raise your ISO above 3200.
As for any night pictures, a sturdy, easy to use tripod. Remember you will have gloves to manipulating your tripod, big knobs are your friend here (tiny lever, bad). You will also need a remote trigger to start your camera without shaking it.
I also recommend a battery grip with two batteries plus a two extra batteries. I did notice that my batteries would last one hour or so when it’s really cold. It’s not that the battery was discharged, it was too cold to give out any electrons :-) I would swap batteries and store the battery in a pocket near my body to warm them up. Once it gets warm again, it has plenty of energy left. I would swap them back in the camera when the other set would run cold and “empty”. With four batteries I was able to work all night without any issues (swapping batteries every hour or so).
After a while, I got tired of the battery swapping thing and the night were colder too, so I strapped a hand warmer pack near the batteries and the electronic of the camera. That did the trick, I was able to work all night without swapping batteries.
I highly recommend that you get a pack of hand warmer pads to put in your pockets, your gloves, insider your shoes, strapped to your camera. Those pads are really useful and will keep you warm.
If you want more informations about my trip, check out Tuan’s blog about it.
I hope you have found this quick list of tips useful and if you like this post and would like to thank me, here is a list of photographic books I would enjoy:
Amazon wish list or you can always order a print of my images (as low as $49) by emailing me.
All the images presented here are available for licensing or as fine art prints.