Ryan Kurkut is a business owner from Edmonton, AB, Canada, who loves to travel. But hailing from Edmonton has a unique advantage as one of the best places to view the Northern Lights. In Edmonton, this spectacular display of nature can be seen from early evening onwards on very active days.
The Colorful, Dancing Lights of Edmonton
Nestled high in the Northern Hemisphere, the Aurora Borealis results from the sun’s charged particles trapped within the earth’s magnetic field. The Southern Hemisphere features the Aurora Australis, a shimmering display of lights that is not quite as spectacular as the Aurora Borealis.
You can witness the Northern Lights at northern latitudes inside the aurora oval, a large ring above the earth’s geomagnetic North Pole. Ryan believes that wintertime is the best time to see an aurora because the nights are longer, darker, and clearer.
In Canada, the best places to view this spectacular light show is in the Northwest Territories, including Edmonton, Yellowknife, Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Labrador.
How to Spot the Northern Lights
Ryan Kurkut suggests that the easiest way to know where and when the Aurora Borealis will be on display is to download one of the Aurora Forecast apps that offer expert information to determine when and how to see the lights. Otherwise, you can gaze towards the northern sky from one of the prime locations for several nights to increase your chances of seeing the dancing lights.
Kurkut suggests traveling outside provincial limits into more remote areas with less light pollution for the best viewing. Seeing an excellent light show inside the city limits can be difficult.
While these vast geomagnetic storms do not happen every night, they happen more frequently during solar maximum (the period when solar activity is highest and sunspots are most abundant) and less during solar minimum.
Photographing the Aurora Borealis
Ryan Kurkut offers these 3 simple tips for photographing the Northern Lights; start when the sky is completely dark, mostly or clear, and aurora activity is at its highest. From Iceland to Finland and from Alaska to Northern Canada, if the environment can meet these 3 criteria, then you should have no problem getting good shots of the Aurora Borealis.
Other photography skills will apply, such as starting with a shutter speed of about 20 seconds, using the lowest F-stop number on your camera, and focusing your lens to infinity.
Kurkut says you can use a good smartphone camera to photograph the Northern Lights; simply experiment and make adjustments as you go along. If you love to travel and have some basic skills in photography, then a trip to memorialize the Northern Lights is an experience you won’t soon forget.
