When it comes to aurora-chasing, any number of unexpected, lucky or unlucky things can happen. Along with more obvious hazards such as being exposed to extreme cold and simply not seeing any northern lights, there can be camera malfunctions and even trouble from wild animals, unwanted police presence and then a shooting star to break it all up.
A chase can end in total failure — or a whole-sky aurora storm. The single greatest problem is having the aurora blocked out by clouds. Much research and planning goes into understanding when is the right time to search for the lights. But when you can see them, it makes it all worth it.
I am an adventure-minded Australian that has been chasing auroras since my time on a study exchange in Helsinki in 2017. Since then, I have become almost addicted, taking many opportunities to go in search for them, even in my home in Southern Australia (where it is MUCH harder to see them).
Here is a diary of my adventures… and misadventures searching for them in Southern Finland.
Note: while most of these below photos were taken by me, the few that weren’t have the photographer fully credited.
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Friday October 13th 2017 — Kirkkonummi, Finland
This was to be my first ever aurora chase, and what better night to go out into the wild than Friday the 13th. To start off, I took a night bus from Helsinki that meandered its way through the Finnish countryside.
I looked at the dials that measure the chance of seeing an aurora. They were looking very promising.
When I arrived to my destination, the air was cold and crisp, with few clouds in sight. The perfect setting.
Then as I started walking towards a better vantage point along the lonely road, I wandered past a large, guarded gate. It was opening.
Coming from within, there was a menacing large vehicle. The vehicle pulled up beside me. Two heavily armed military soldiers stepped out.
They questioned what I was doing there.
Unknowingly, I was in a restricted area.
The soldiers escorted me to the cell at the back of the vehicle. The vehicle started to move. There was only a tiny window in the cell. It was very dark inside. The walls were closing in.
The vehicle kept moving.
Worrying and tense feelings came over me.
Suddenly, the vehicle stopped. After getting out, they exchanged words with each other that I could not understand.
They approached close, looming over me. Closer yet. Interrogation.
Then they began to speak in a surprising manner.
‘Never come back here again unless you want to be arrested. You can find the bus stop further along this road.’
They trudged back to the vehicle and droned away through the cutting darkness.
I had a sense of overwhelming relief. I was free.
But it was the middle of a dark forest road. Walking was now the only option.
Tall, twisted trees loomed on either side. The night was clear with stars flickering. Leaves rustled in the distance. But no view of the northern horizon, and no sign of those elusive lights.
Then… a clearing could be seen ahead! I hurried there and set up my camera equipment in anticipation.
Looking upon the northern horizon there was a pale glow low on the sky. To my great luck, there suddenly was…
A bright shooting star!
Being still inexperienced at aurora chasing, I had no idea whether this mysterious glow was an aurora or not, so I let the camera shoot away. At home, I looked at the photos properly.
Sure enough, the pale glow was green. It was my first capture of the northern lights.
This was the aurora adventure that turned into a ‘lucky’ misadventure.
Aurora Chase Result: 6/10
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Tuesday November 7th 2017 — Helsinki, Finland
There is always something mysteriously enchanting about the northern lights, even a certain sadness about them, as they have the capacity to lift ones psyche right up regardless of the circumstances. And this night truly did that.
On a relatively quiet night, where there was no major activity forecast, I was just sitting in my room reflecting on things. The shortening and mostly grey days of November give a sombre air at this time of year.
Then I got a notification on my phone that the northern lights may be visible in Helsinki imminently.
The solar activity was much stronger than forecast, and was now at moderate storm level (kp6+). These events are quite rare.
So I hurriedly raced down in the cold, middle of the night with my GoPro camera to the Helsinki ‘beach’. More like a rocky outcrop.
When I got there, to my complete shock, I saw them! They were reasonably low on the horizon, but they were moving much faster than I expected, and there was definitely some colour in there as well! There were these forms that kind of ebbed and flowed.
Unbelievable. This was my first time seeing the northern lights properly — and the best word to describe it is maybe mesmerizing. Like wow, they are really there.
I almost fell over on the rocks and almost dropped my camera in the sheer excitement.
Then, problem!
The GoPro started beeping non-stop as I tried to set it up.
But to my great luck it wasn’t broken and I managed to make it work again.
I started to take some photos. The lighting and setting wasn’t that good so I decided to change location to another nearby ‘beach’.
This one turned out to have much better photos, and the northern lights after being quiet for some time again flared up and this time were very spectacular.
I stayed for a while longer until the show really died down.
Later, after a bit of editing the photos I thought it would be a good idea to try my luck at sending the photos to the Finnish news. To my surprise, they offered to post them on their Facebook!
This was truly a night to remember, and was one of the most widely seen and photographed northern lights events in Finland in recent years. Still the best show I have ever seen.
Aurora Chase Result: 9/10
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Tuesday, December 5th 2017 — Tampere, Finland
This day I embarked on an overnight trip to Tampere to chase the northern lights. Far in advance, there was a predicted high level of activity as the region of the sun that caused the previous northern lights show in Helsinki returned to face earth.
Everything was set, and the conditions were slowly creeping up to the expected levels as night fell. But there was one problem — cloud cover that didn’t seem to be budging to go away.
As it was an overnight trip, I waited until it was almost 10pm to head to the ideal viewing location by the lake, as auroras are generally strongest and most likely around midnight. However, they can happen at any time and this came back to bite me this day.
While I was walking towards the vantage point, I could hear cheers coming from the lakefront. I figured that the people already there had seen something exciting, so I hurried to get there — but all I could see was cloud cover and a small amount of glow, like something was happening above the clouds near the horizon.
I figured that in between the heavy cloud there must have been a break, allowing the others to catch a glimpse of an auroral show, even if just for a few minutes. It eventually started snowing and I decided that was it for the night. I learned not to trust rules of thumb with aurora hunting — the lights can appear early evening, midnight, or morning.
Aurora Chase Result: 4/10
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Monday, January 8th 2018 — Jyvaskyla, Finland
On this day an unexpected auroral storm was brewing — combined with… totally clear skies! With all the indicators looking like a hit, I decided to make my way to the city of Jyvaskyla, just over two hours from Helsinki by bus.
It was a very cold day, below minus 5, and very bright, with the snow reflecting the light of the sun. After getting to Jyvaskyla, a mandatory exploration of the town ensued, but the streets were very slippery and icy and hard to get around.
A few hours after nightfall, I decided to leave the warm and comfortable indoor areas that I was hiding in until the ideal chasing time.
Hiking down to the lake shore, it was even colder, but stars were flickering above — a great sign. To warm up, I had decided to have a Longkero, a cold gin lemonade drink. Bad decision — the alcohol couldn’t warm my fingers up.
Anyways, I walked through some uninhabited areas near the lake, and then moved to an even quieter area in a forest clearing. I set up the camera, and now it was just the waiting game.
I waited. And waited. It started to get even colder. And there was no northern lights to speak of.
Then there were some strange noises — as if an animal like a moose was nearby. These bellowing noises happened every 5 minutes or so, and I started to get concerned.
But still no northern lights. Just some flickering stars. It got even colder. Then the clouds came. So reluctantly I called it a night.
On the way back to town, I realised the bellowing noises were… actually the sound of the nearby ski resort turning the snow-making machine on and off.
This aurora hunt was a great adventure, but ultimately a cold disaster leading to almost losing my fingers of frostbite from all that waiting and an ill-timed gin lemonade.
Aurora Chase Result: 3/10
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Tuesday, February 20th 2018 — Helsinki, Finland
So it had all come to this — my final night in Helsinki, and Finland, before an early morning flight back to Australia.
I should have been packing, but then I got a notification — there was a small chance of seeing the northern lights again… one last time.
The brutally cold (minus 14) conditions could not deter me from my last search — which was actually just walking just 5 minutes from my apartment through a small forest and to the frozen seashore.
I walked onto the frozen water, where I waited a short while before I could see a band of pale light on the northern horizon, distinct from the distant city lights.
With photo gear at the ready — I prepared to shoot. But then I noticed some light pillars suddenly appearing in the east as well. Then I saw more pillars appearing… in the SOUTH!
This mini flare up of the northern lights only lasted about 5 to 10 minutes, but I managed to capture it, and it sure was a great way to say goodbye to this most interesting country.
Though not as spectacular as the November lightshow, it was very fascinating to see the lights appear in the southern horizon from as far south as Helsinki — it was practically unheard of.
This shows that the northern lights can appear in the most unexpected of ways…
Aurora Chase Result: 7/10
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The North Wind Adventurer was created by Tristan in 2017 following extended time overseas in Northern Europe. With a passion for photography, aurora chasing, outdoor activities and nature, Tristan can often be found reflecting on a past trip… or planning the next one.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Southern Hemisphere Aurora Group — facebook group
Aurora Hunters Victoria — facebook group
Aurora Alerts in Finland — facebook group
Monash University Aurora Group — facebook group
SpaceWeatherLive — website (aurora & solar forecasts)
Aalto University — exchange partner with my home university