I have never seen the northern lights before. But, when we travelled to Yukon during autumn, 2021, we were excited about the possibility. Haines Junction, the tiny hamlet in Yukon where we stayed, is about 61 degrees north and thus, ideal for aurora activity. And luck was on our side. On one clear night, we woke up around 2 am, took a chance and drove just 10 minutes out of the street lights and there it is. We saw the aurora glow quite clearly. We parked our car by the side of the highway, and just stared (and took photos of course) at the wondrous event, mesmerised!
About a month later, on Halloween weekend, we got lucky one more time, this time from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Now, St. John’s is only 47 degree north. So, it has to be a pretty intense geomagnetic storm for any aurora activity. And, so it did and also on two consecutive clear nights with no moonlight. We went outside the city, on a foot trail by the ocean. And, you can see the faint glow on the northwest horizon. It was far less discernible than that of Yukon but still made us spellbound. It also gave me the opportunity to shoot aurora twice, from two extremes of Canada, the west and the east.
2021 turned out to be a good year for aurora viewing.
DoubleSpeak 