Chasing the Aurora

Viewing Aurora has always been one of my bucket list and I finally did it! I joined a Singapore group tour to Finland/Norway. It has been an unique and fun experience.

Highlights of the trip

Aurora, Aurora and Aurora

We flew in to Helsinki and then to Rovaniemi in the Arctic circle! The first night was impossible as it was really cloudy but that's alright as I was probably very sleepy. The 2nd night was at the glass igloo. As we were settling down in the room after some winter fun outside the igloo and stroll to the Santa Village, we saw message from our group leader to gather for aurora! There was sighting by our group leader and all of us gathered outside where we had a short walk to take a closer look. The aurora was quite far but it's our first sighting so it didn't really matter. I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to quite see it via bare eyes. I must say that I wouldn't know that's aurora if not for my tour manager.

The first sighting lasted for around an hour and we headed back for sauna and bathing. On hindsight that seem to be a bad decision as the couple next door saw Aurora from the igloo by just switching off all lights and watching from the bed ! I decided to wander out to try out my luck after bathing and that's when I saw it a second time on the same night. I was told by a nearby lady that it was quite nice just before I came out! Nevertheless, I was still excited to see it and decided to inform my Friend who's still in the bathroom as well as texted my grp tour chatgroup.

We seemed to be a lucky group of people as our 2nd night of sighting happened to be the next day. We were in 
saariselkä and our tour leader helped to extend the bus and the bus driver for Aurora hunting. The costs were shared but that's worthwhile as the 2nd sighting that night was quite pretty. We first went to a mountain area which was popular for Aurora sighting. The place itself was quite cool with lotsa stars but we had to wait in the cold. There were quite a number of people who waited in the tour bus but I decided to stay out. The lights wasn't that bright but there was still excitement as the strength intensified. The tour leader brought us to a 2nd location ie a road side to view. This second sighting was quite nice . As my tripod wasn't working well, I was enjoying it with my eyes towards the later part of the viewing. It's quite nice to see the Audit dancing though the Colours were not as bright as what we could see in the camera. 

It was a great night for us as we got another surprise sighting as we reached the hotel ! 

We had a drought of 2 nights as the heavy snow fell and the sky was really cloudy. Our third sighting was on board the Hurtigen cruise from Kirkenes to Tromso. As we were relaxing in the lounge, we heard the Aurora alert at around 8pm and rushed up the deck to view the dancing Aurora. It slowly developed into a big and wide patch. It was a great feast for the eyes but it couldn't be captured nicely on camera as the ship swayed from left to right . 

My last sighting was on board the plane and via the live camera in the plane. I had left the camera viewer on and happened to see the green patch as I woke up from a short nap. 

Overall it's a great experience though we just missed the solar storm as we flew out from Tromso to Helsinki. I would love to see high intensity Aurora and Aurora with different Colours. But I still count my blessing with up to 3 nights of actual viewing ! 

Will love to repeat the experience !