Has anyone ever seen the Aurora from Scotland? I'd love to experience this myself and was thinking of trying to do so before the end of October. Can anyone recommend a campsite in that part of the world? If you've experienced this yourself please let me know...... Thanks. Steve H
I've seen the northern lights near Bristol and Middlesbrough. Both times were due to very odd atmospheric weather conditions and I feel very lucky to have seen it. It was fantastic!!
This website might be of some use for you if you're planning a trip to try to see the Northern Lights.
We've seen it from a little place called Benderloch near Oban, absolutely magical, almost convinced myself someone had put dodgy mushrooms in the soup.
That was in the October holidays a few years back.
We sometimes see them from the hills here but nothing like seeing them from Scotland.
It's difficult to plan trips to see aurora; if you notice the adverts for aurora spotting flights and cruises there's always a disclaimer in small print stating that you may not see them. I've been fascinated by aurora since my first sight of them over 30 years ago and use the aurorawatch website at least daily (sad, I know lol). We have recently been lucky enough to have aurora visible as far south as Oxfordshire and Hampshire but this doesn't happen very often. The spaceweather website is also useful. You can access it via the aurorawatch website or here is a link
There are so many variables that affect aurora viewing that it really isn't possible to plan ahead. The best advice I can give is to make yourself familiar with the websites and the information they provide. If you use twitter there are several Tweeters who also give alerts.
we went on an Iceland air short break a couple of years ago and that included the hotel and a trip out to see the Northern Lights. Unfortunately the night we were booked to go, was too cloudy, as was the following night so we never got to see them. It was a great hol though and we did swim in the Blue Lagoon (it was January) and see geysers, waterfalls and lots of other stuff too.
We returned from the 2,500 mile Norwegian Coastal Voyage on Thursday last. We had misty, rainy & for a while, snowy weather with the odd clear day. After one of these better days with a clear night we were treated to more than an hour of Northern Lights, we were well north of the Arctic Circle & thought were were too early in the season, but what a magical experience seeing them from the deck of a boat at night. Never to be forgotten!
------------- Harvey 15.8.1995 - 18.11.2010. Run free, sweet boy x
As a child (many, many years ago) I went to a campsite in Alness and was fortunate enough to see aurora borealis. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Quite magical and almost little bit surreal. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it since but I would give almost anything to experience it again so I am definitely going to try some of the very useful tips that have been mentioned on this post. And good luck to everybody - it is certainly worth the wait!
Possibility of Aurora in the north tonight, clear skies permitting.
British Geological Survey have sent out an alert, another useful source of information, here's a link if anyone is interested. They've actually been a bit quicker than aurorawatch on a few occasions of late.