Time-lapse video of the Northern Lights

I've seen the northern lights once, at a cabin weekend in Wisconsin a couple of years ago. It's a strange thing to experience, especially at that latitude, where the lights aren't as in-your-face as this photo. For the first minute or so, you kind of wonder whether you're hallucinating. Then you realize that everybody else is standing perfectly still and silent, staring at the exact same point in the sky.

This time-lapse video (you'll have to follow the link to watch) shows a far more spectacular display over the Ringebu Fjell in southern Norway, captured by photographer Bernd Proschold. The moment when the clouds clear away, and the lights burst into view is absolutely breathtaking.

The World At Night: A Glimpse of the Far North

(Thanks, Chris Combs!)

Still image taken in Greenland by Flickr user nickrussill. Used via CC.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

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Antinous / Moderator

Oooh shiny!
Anne K.

Every time I go up north* to my aunt and uncle’s house/farm, I hope to see the northern lights. It’s one of the top things to see on my life list.

*Embarras, MN, also known as “Jesus, it’s !&*#$!& cold!” this time of year.
lectio

If you whistle at the Northern Lights, they’ll move and come closer.
kyoorius

Couple of years ago after a large solar storm we had aurora visible 20 miles west of New York City.

This was snapped with a cheap point and shoot Canon digital:

http://photo.omnistep.com/aurora11072004
- Adam Stanhope
  
  Wow – those pics are fantastic! I’m amazed that you got them so far south!
  
  I have witnessed the lights from an island off the far northeastern coast of Maine. Your photos look like the way they appeared to me in Maine.
Alys

I never get sick of seeing the Northern Lights. They’re incredible. (They’re also much harder to see when you live in a city, as all the light pollution tends to drown them out.) My favourite place to watch them is at my family’s cabin an hour and a half north of Saskatoon, SK (Canada).
bobk

Here are some time-lapse videos from Yellowknife, AK:
http://www.astronomynorth.com/Replay2009.html
Snig

Saw it once vividly, between towns on unlit Interstate 81 in upstate New York. Was less bright than the pictures here, still looked like the aliens were about to land. Waves of shimmering color washing over the sky. Stopped on the highway and watched it a while.
HowardsGrl

That was just beautiful!

I have always hoped to see these one day in person.

kyoorius: your photos are awesome as well.
Robbo

We are witness to the net connection with the ‘verse from here aboard our mother Earth.

So there.
Anonymous

I think the lights are what I miss most about living in Alaska. Even now, 7 years after moving back to the Lower 48, I catch myself looking for them in the night sky.
djn

One of my long-term plans is to spend a week or so up in Northern-light-territory (I was thinking Finnmark, though Svalbard would be fun) solely to see the northern lights on a more spectacular scale than what we get down near Oslo where I live.

Of course, just moving to somewhere really dark would probably be enough …
MadRat

A few years ago when I was driving from Talkeetna to Palmer, Alaska (the general area of Anchorage) I saw the Northern Lights; they were monochrome and faint but I did get to see them. I remember looking at the Aurora and thinking how they seemed like thin high clouds in the nighttime sky, moving at about the same speed as clouds. I pulled over and turned off the headlights and just watched them for a while.
Diamond Jim

Joanna Lumley took time out from standing up for the Gurkhas last year to realize her childhood dream of seeing the Northern Lights in a BBC doc. Spoiler: she does see them. Boy does she see them. She’s in tears at the end. The light show starts about 4:53 into this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ8xd6xnZ9U&feature=related

and here’s a different time-lapse from further north in Norway, courtesy of dear old Sir Patrick Moore and “The Sky at Night” (no, Sir Patrick does not leave his study to freeze among the reindeer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kqueltv00
Anonymous

Please have a look at http://www.auroraskystation.se/livecamera/ where a canon camera and the Shoot It Live system capture photos every 10 minute. The camera is located on a mountain top in Abisko, Sweden.

Abisko, in the middle of the auroral zone, is considered to be the best place on earth to see the Aurora Borealis. With its fresh, clear air and its practically permanent cloud-free sky the prerequisites in Abisko are optimal. More or less active northern lights can be seen almost every night.

Regards,
Martin, Shoot It Live
http://www.shootitlive.com
Dean W. Armstrong

For colors I haven’t had anything beat a night I had in May 2005 at Yerkes Observatory–we had blues, purples, plus the standard green and red (photos at http://dwarmstr.blogspot.com/2005/05/aurora-photos-from-yerkes-observatory.html ). For scary action (we are talking 10Hz pulsing across the whole sky, activity in real-time faster than that time-lapse) a couple of years ago right here in the city of Chicago a display shocked me beyond compare. I had been looking out the window since a geomagnetic warning, wondering if there was a display, and the whole view suddenly TURNED blood red. The pulsing across the sky started up after watching that one for a while; I felt like I shouldn’t stop watching the sky because I was worried about what it might do to … something or someone. That pulsing was freaky.
Anonymous

The animated gif link’s url is missing the last “f”.