There’s huge excitement in Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) hunting circles right now. The lights are historically at their most frequent and spectacular when the sun reaches the peak of its 11 year activity cycle known as Solar Maximum and NASA is predicting this will happen in Autumn 2013.
Solar Maximium means the lights will be at their best this winter and next and we’ve already seen many a stunning skies in the Auroral Zone since the darker nights kicked in at the end of August.
It’s got professional Aurora chasing photographers like Antti Pietikainen in Finnish Lapland very, very excited indeed and with good reason when you look at the images he captured way back in Autumn 2011 (two years before Solar Maximum!!!).
“Last year’s Autumn Draconoids meteor shower peaked with full sky auroras. First two centimeters of snow and I was at my cabin in forest. I set the camera straight up against the aspen on the cabin yard. I had a break from sauna and almost slipped at the porch when I saw the sky on fire. I could stay out only a couple of minutes because I was barefoot on the winter's first snow.”
If it was that good then, what will Solar Maximum bring we wonder?
The Aurora Borealis is visible above the arctic circle from around mid-August until late-March. However, not everybody wants to visit this part of the world during the cold months of winter so we’ve introduced a range of holidays to create an Autumn alternative and hopefully take advantage of the warmer weather conditions.