Experiencing the Northern Lights

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Northern Lights

So last night I got a little more of a glimpse of the northern lights! This was my first time experiencing them ever!

At about 7:30pm I came out of an appointment. My Swede texted me saying his father saw some Northern lights not to far away. Even though I was in the city, I looked up… nothing, just pitch black 🙁 So maybe we weren’t supposed to get them in Skellefteå.

Northern Lights Exposed

As we were driving to a friends house, I continued to look out the window up at the ski, even though there were lights everywhere. We had just stopped at a red light, with a green light not far away, and even more lights lit the area because it was a train crossing on the road. However, I spotted something in the ski… it looked like green smoke. With the houses all around us, I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me- perhaps some chimney smoke was just reflecting off of the green traffic light… Was that really the Northern Lights?

Northern Lgiths Exposed Again

We drove out of that intersection and it became clear – it wasn’t green smoke, but the northern lights. THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! I started hitting my Swede in my excitement (not too hard mind you). We drove up to Vitberg, our local ski hill, to catch a better glimpse. They were amazing. Unfortunately our pictures do not due them justice. They moved very slowly about the ski, and would appear one place and then the next. And as soon as they came, the poof, disappeared again. Only leaving me to want more!

I was, however, happy! The cold winter had paid off, I saw the Northern lights!

Today fellow Swedish Freaks of Twitter also shared their experiences – and videos and pictures! Check out TheNorthlanders video of the Northern Lights below.

Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights timelapse w. 7D from MarianneMovie on Vimeo.

9 thoughts on “Experiencing the Northern Lights”

  1. so i dont know if you heard but a week or so ago there were some strange orange lights on top of mt diablo. 😉 while i just figure they were the lights that are always up there…some random idiot says “hey! they are the northern lights!” um pretty sure the east bay, and california in general are NOT northern enough to be the northern lights! nor have i ever heard of them being balls of light. damn crazy east bay crack heads! lol love the picks ms. foster!!!!

    Reply
    • LMAO!!! Well, maybe because they were on top of Mt. Diablo they were north LOL I have heard Swedes as south as Uppsala (70km north of Stockholm) seeing Northern Lights, so you don’t have to be far north. But that was one time. Some one once asked me. Do they get Southern Lights in the south? No idea…

      Reply
  2. actually they do! they are called aurora australis! dont ask me why i know this! i think i watch a documentary on the discovery channel or something like that 😉 lol but if they ask you again now you can answer!!! in order to see both northern and southern lights you usually have to be between 60 and 72 degrees latitude (north and south respectively) at high elevation.

    Reply
  3. I think you can see the auroras quite far south (meaning even southern europe in the highest altitudes on the clearest nights) but because the magnetic field becomes weaker, they are rarely seen.

    I have always wanted to see them so it is wonderful that you were able to!

    Reply
  4. Beautiful! I can’t wait to see them in Sweden. I actually saw them once in California which was really odd (and it happened on my birthday!). Then I saw them on my flight to Sweden somewhere over arctic Canada/Greenland. We flew to Iceland then Stockholm, so were quite far north.
    You’re soo lucky!! the Northern Lights are insanely crazy and amazing!!

    Reply
    • In California, really??? Maybe they were the aliens that were on Mt Diablo in the East Bay… Michelle? hehehe

      But in all seriousness, they are amazing! I just hope next time I will be out of the city and will be able to get better pictures. I had to mess with the levels in photoshop to be able to see these better.

      Reply

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