Q: When is the best time to see them?
A: It depends. They can appear at anytime and sometimes they only last a few minutes and other times they last from dawn to dusk. If it’s on your bucket list to see them, then you have to put in the time and stay out until (if) they show up.
Q: Can I narrow down the time I need to stay outside to see the northern lights?
A: Not sure why you would want to; being outside is awesome! Usually, 11pm to 1am is the best.
Q: When is the best time of year to see them?
A: It’s hard to say. The northern lights happen after the sun ejects a corona mass ejection (CME) and that CME hits earth. It’s like the weather. You can predict it like you can predict the weather, but you usually only have a few days warning. That said, for some reason they appear more often around the equinoxes.
Q: Where can I get the space weather report?
A: My favorite is Spaceweather.com. The aurora prediction is in the left column at the bottom. Look for the Kp index, the Auroral Oval and the Geomagnetic Storms chart. The Aurora Forecast from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is also great. It’s better for a layperson.
Q: What is Kp?
A: We use Kp to rate the strength of the aurora storm. It’s like rating a hurricane or tornado. The higher the number, the further south you can see them. Kp=4 means that the edge of the aurora is somewhere near Grand Marais. Kp=5 means Duluth is having them. Kp=6 puts the front near the Twin Cities. Kp-9 puts it way south almost to northern Texas. You can often see the northern lights low on the horizon even if the Kp is lower than it would need to be to put the front in your location. For example, in Grand Marais we can often see them at Kp=3ish. They’ll be either a band on the horizon or a green glow.
A high Kp doesn’t mean that northern lights will be out. You’ll need to learn to look at the other data, too. Take time to understand solar wind speed, solar wind density, the Bt and Bz, and the Hemispheric Power.
Q: Where should I go to see them?
A: Go out into the country as far away from city lights as you can get. Find a place with an open view to the north and look. You could use the Dark Sky Finder to help you out.
Q: Will they be out next week or next month when I visit Grand Marais?
A: Northern lights are literally weather. You know how wrong the weatherman usually is, right? Same thing.
Q: I looked at Spaceweather and saw the aurora oval. It looks like the northern lights are over Russia, so we won’t get them, right?
A: The aurora oval rotates as the day goes on. It usually is lowest on the globe during local midnight. So, if it’s really low in Russia and the storm continues, it may be low over North America.
Q: Minnesota isn’t that high in latitude. Why does it get them often.
A: The aurora oval rotates around the magnetic north pole more than the true north pole. The magnetic north pole is closer to Minnesota than the true north pole, so we get the northern lights more often that you’d think we should. If there’s a storm, we will probably have them.
Q: Is there an app to get notifications?
A: Yes, it’s called SpaceWeatherLive. They also have a website.
Q: I heard about surprise auroras. What are those?
A: Around midnight, even when the auroras aren’t predicted, they sometimes appear for a brief time. So, if you’re out shooting night photos put yourself somewhere near a northern view around midnight. You never know. You might see northern lights.
Q: Should I bring a camping chair?
A: No. Maybe. Not if you are photographing the northern lights, because you’ll want to move around and recompose and try different angles. If you’re just watching them, it might be really nice to have one. I’d also bring a blanket. Even in summer, it gets cold in the north.
Q: I want to photograph the northern lights what gear should I bring?
A: A solid tripod. See my post on best inexpensive tripod for the money. A hot shoe bubble level [Amazon link] to make sure the lakes are level in your shot. A shutter release cord [Amazon link] to prevent camera shake.
Q: What settings should I use to photograph them?
A: This is a hard one, because when they’re bright you’ll use different settings than if they’re dull. The key concept is to capture lots of data and try to get as short of a shutter speed as possible. Usually, that means using a wide aperture. I always start with f/2.8. Then I push the ISO up until I can get shutter speeds near 2 to 4 seconds. My camera does well up to ISO of 6,400 to 8,000. I don’t got beyond that because it gets too noisy. You’ll need to figure out how high you can go with ISO before it gets too noisy. Ideally, your histogram will be pushed far to the right without going beyond the right side end of the graph. Sometime, you can’t get it there. If you can’t, increase your shutter speed until you can. When it’s really dull, sometimes the best you can get is the histogram about halfway across the graph. The goal in the field is to capture data — you want as much as you can get and data on the right side of the histogram is much better than data on the left. You will process your RAW file later. Always shoot RAW for night photos.
Q: How do I focus at night?
A: The easiest way is to find infinity on your lens and focus there. If you don’t know how to do that, go outside and autofocus on the far horizon. Then look for a distance scale on your lens. If your lens has a distance scale, note where it focused. At night, you can turn off your autofocus and set the distance scale at this same point. If you don’t have the distance scale, tape the focus ring and turn off focus. Always shoot a test shot or two and magnify the image review to make sure you are in focus.
Q: What camera should I use?
A: Ideally a camera of the latest generation. The newer sensors are so good at capturing the night that they blow older cameras away. Full frame cameras are best, but they are expensive. I use a latest generation full frame camera for all my shots. If you use a APS-C camera, make sure it’s one of the newer generations. Cameras that are 5 years old just don’t do a good job, but almost all the DSLRs and many mirrorless cameras from the last two years do well.
Q: What lens should I use?
A: I need to update the specific lenses here. This is my general lens kit for night photography using a full frame camera:
- 14-24mm f/28
- 20mm f/1.8 (f/1.4) or you may prefer 24mm f/1.8 (f/1.4) for a tighter view of foregrounds and the Milky Way
- 35mm f/1.8 (f/1.4)
- Optional: 14mm f/1.8 — this is a really good option for people shooting a system that offers this.
Tough question. For full frame, you’ll want something in the 14 to 24mm range. The Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 [Amazon Link] is an excellent night lens and adapts to almost every camera system (you lose autofocus and aperture control through the body. Rokinon makes the 14 f/2.8 [Amazon Link] and Tamron makes a 15-30 f/2.8 [Amazon Link]. You could also use primes. You want a lens that has limited coma in the corners. For APS-C, the Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 [Amazon Link] or the 12mm f/2.8 (for mirrorless) [Amazon Link] is an excellent choice. The Tokina 11-16 or 11-20 f/2.8 [Amazon Link] is a great lens as well. The Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 [Amazon Link] would also work well for APS-C.
Q: How do you process your photos to get the consistent look?
A: I use Adobe Lightroom and a set of presets to help adjust my photos. It usually takes 30 seconds or less. You can buy my Night Sky Lightroom Presets if you like.
More Questions answered:
1. Is there a northern lights season?
No. At least not in the way that seasons are commonly understood. We understand that snow is going to happen in winter but not in summer. We understand that spring flowers happen in the spring and not in fall. We understand that hot weather — anything above 70°F — happens in the summer and not in winter. In that way, the northern lights do not have a season. They could happen during any month on any night.
They do occur more often around the equinoxes. That doesn’t mean that they are seasonal in the way that flowers, snow, fall colors and hot weather it is. It only means you MIGHT see them more often then. You also might not.
The northern lights can and do occur in all the months of the year. In high latitudes, they don’t get to see them in summer because of the long days or midnight sun. That isn’t the case in a location like Minnesota. We have enough darkness here even in June that you could see them if they occur. Some of the best northern lights I’ve seen have been during the summer. That’s when I’m more likely to be outside photographing the night sky, so I see them more often then.
2. Can you tell me when I should plan my vacation to make sure I see the northern lights?
No. Can you tell me exactly what the weather will be like in a week? No. It’s exactly like that.
The northern lights are like weather. You don’t know when they are going to happen. If the sun sends an explosion of material towards us and it somehow hits the planet and if the planet’s magnetic field is aligned in the right way, then we may see northern lights. There’s no long-term way to predict that.
I’d even say that predictions that are longer than a day or two are questionable at best. I’d even say that a prediction of a day ahead of time may not result in northern lights.
3. Without being able to know when they will happen how can I see them?
You have to put in time outside during the night. If the predictions say that they seem likely, then you need to go somewhere in the north that is dark — it’s becoming increasingly hard to find truly dark areas due to increasing light pollution. If you have an outdoor light that you keep on during the night, you are causing that pollution.
4. There is no specific time at night during which they might occur?
No. You go out after sunset and stay out until the morning. Sometimes we might even get a surprise aurora event around midnight. I’ve probable seen the northern lights more often during a surprise than during a new-worthy prediction. In Minnesota, most of the surprises are low on the northern horizon.
5. But I really want to see them, and I need to know more and I don’t want to spend that much time outside trying to find them. What should I know?
Get the SpaceWeather Live app and learn how to read the data, and then pray to the sun that it tries to kill us on the night you’ll be outside.
Your other option is to move to Alaska during the winter. You’ll likely see them then.
6. Are they called Lady Aurora?
No, I call them the Destroyer, the dispatch of the sun and the bringer of death. See: Carrington Event. Seriously, call them what you like but you’ll never catch me calling them Lady Aurora. I call them the northern lights or aurora borealis. I’m not into personification of natural phenomenon.
7. What is the Solar Cycle?
The sun does its thing in cycles. Those cycles last about 11 years. During the cycle the sun goes through a minimum in activity and then has more activity leading up to a maximum. We are currently out of the minimum and heading to the maximum.
We are in Solar Cycle 25 (since 1755), and it is looking to be an active one (despite predictions to the contrary). The maximum should be in 2025-26. As we approach the maximum, the sun will get more active. As it does, it will throw more space weather at us and that causes the northern lights. In theory, we should get more northern lights in the coming years than in the last four or five. There was a huge dry spell since the last maximum.
8. I’m out looking, but I don’t see them. What should I do to see them?
They might not be out. It sucks, but even a great forecast can mean no northern lights. Use PhotoPills to figure out when the Milky Way will start to rise. Go see that. Over 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way. You deserve to see it, but light pollution is preventing you from experiencing it. If you have exterior lights, especially unshielded lights, you are causing light pollution.
9. Do they have colors like that?
Yes, absolutely. The colors you see when out there depend on your eyes. I often see vivid greens. I also see subtle other colors. Most people don’t have good color vision at night and can’t see the colors. It’s luck of the draw.
10. What cell phone should I use?
I don’t know. You should read the reviews. I use a Google Pixel 6 and people tell me my night shots with it are great. Compared to my camera, I don’t think it comes close. The Pixel phones are known for their excellent Nightsight function.
Got a question. Ask it below and I’ll try to answer it. If you get my newsletter via email just head to my website and leave a comment.
Leave a Reply