After several months of waiting, the 24-hour daylight of the ‘Midnight Sun’ has said goodbye for another year. Last week the news that Aurora hunters everywhere had been waiting for finally arrived – the 2020/21 Northern Lights season has begun!

If you have kept track of any of our previous blogs, you will probably be aware that here at The Aurora Zone we love autumn! Despite your reservations, there is a very good reason for the fact we regularly try to convince anyone that will listen that autumn is an excellent time to visit the Arctic Circle – namely the Northern Lights viewing potential!

Here at The Aurora Zone, we absolutely love seeing our clients’ images from their Northern Lights adventures with us. Whether they are searching for the Aurora on the back of a snowmobile, trying their hand at mushing on a dog sledding safari or simply taking in the stunning Arctic scenery, we couldn’t be happier than when we see our clients ticking off some incredible experiences from their bucket lists!

If you’re travelling with us this Northern Lights season, we want to make sure you know all about our #AuroraZoneMoments competition so you don’t miss out on the chance to win a £50 John Lewis voucher! 

Witness the Northern Lights with our handy guide

The Aurora Borealis is arguably Mother Nature’s greatest spectacle. Nothing can describe standing in a remote pristine wilderness, far from light pollution and looking up at the starry sky as the spellbinding colours start to take shape. It really is no wonder this remarkable sight features so highly on many people’s bucket lists.

As the only holiday company solely dedicated to helping you witness the Northern Lights, we have plenty of experience in all things Aurora. That’s why we’ve put together this quick guide to help you choose the perfect Northern Lights holiday and tick this phenomenal experience off your bucket list.

If you have never been out into the dark night searching for the Aurora, there can be a lot of mystery surrounding this natural occurrence. Our Aurora Travel Experts have tried and tested almost all of the variables - from when and where to visit, to how you might travel into the Arctic night.

Scroll to see our top tips!

Recently, NASA made their entire media library accessible to the public and since then, we’ve been excitedly scrolling through some spectacular images from space. Now, the Northern Lights are mesmerising to see from land but there’s something about a space station’s unique vantage point that really shows off just how magical this display is.

We’ve touted March as a great time to hunt for the Northern Lights until we are blue in the face. This is because there is very good scientific reasoning to support our assertion that March is the best of the winter months for witnessing the Aurora Borealis.

Many people associate the Northern Lights with the cold depths of winter, and though we have seen some excellent displays come out of our Aurora Zone destinations this season, we’re also extremely excited to see what March will bring.

A question we are asked almost every day here at The Aurora Zone is “when is the best time to see the Northern Lights?”. Now, when dealing with a natural phenomenon such as the Aurora Borealis, it is pretty hard to answer this question with any degree of certainty as its appearance can rarely be predicted accurately much more than a few hours in advance.

However, we have successfully chased the Northern Lights for quite a while now and it fair to say that March has become a particular favourite amongst our Aurora Experts for a number of reasons.

If you have been keeping up to date with our blogs then you will remember that we recently mentioned why we love Coronal Holes so much (you can find out more here).

The key thing to note about Coronal Holes is that they are one of the causes of solar winds which, in turn, cause the Northern Lights to appear in our skies. Although less violent than Coronal Mass Ejections (the other source of solar wind), they are more stable. So much so, that they often reappear 27 days after their first appearance on the surface of the sun.

If you read our blogs regularly then you will remember that we recently discussed why we really love Coronal Holes (if not you can catch up here). Not only do Coronal Holes produce high-speed streams of Solar Wind which often manifest themselves as the Northern Lights but they also help in predicting Auroral activity too.

If you are like us, then you will probably know the feeling of watching as the excitement builds and builds towards the 25^th December before it crashes down again on the 26^th- that is of course until the 31^st December!

Now, we love a New Year’s party as much as the next person and some of the fireworks displays on offer can be wonderful. However, if you really want to celebrate in style and enjoy a light show like no other then there really is only one thing to do – book yourself a New Year Northern Lights escape!

Quite some time ago, we wrote an article debunking fears that the Northern Lights are set to disappear as the Sun approaches a period of reduced activity known as Solar Minimum. The article highlighted that yes, solar activity is likely to reduce but, happily, the incidences of Coronal Holes is expected to increase.

It may still only be October but the first snow has already started to fall in Lapland and winter is well on its way! Here at The Aurora Zone, this news fills us with excitement as in our opinion there is something quite special about chasing after the Northern Lights in spectacular snow-covered landscapes.

However, something that has to be even more special than hunting the Aurora in the snowy Arctic wilderness is the opportunity to celebrate Christmas in your very own winter wonderland on your very own festive Northern Lights adventure!

Tucked away from the city lights but only a short drive from Rovaniemi airport sits our newest Aurora Zone destination, the Apukka Aurora Borealis Resort.

We are blue in the face from telling anybody who will listen that autumn is an excellent time to search for the Aurora Borealis. Scientific research and findings from various esteemed Solar Physicists repeatedly point to increased geomagnetic activity (and hence, Auroral displays) in the weeks around the autumn and spring equinoxes.

The big question therefore, is; has this new aurora hunting season started well?

Here at The Aurora Zone, there is nothing we want more than for our clients to have the best possible chance of witnessing the Northern Lights. One of the ways we try to optimise your chances is by learning all we can about the underlying science which causes Auroral displays (you can find out more about this on our website under ‘The Science of the Northern Lights’). 

During a recent trip to northern Finland, we spent time in the Inari and Utsjoki regions, two areas that are both steeped in Sámi culture and history.

For those of you that don’t know, the Sámi are the indigenous people of the Lapland region. They were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who made their home in this unique part of northern Scandinavia approximately 4000 years ago, making them one of the oldest cultures in Europe.

The Northern Lights season may be at a close as summer draws nearer, but fear not the Auroras will not be gone forever. In fact, here at The Aurora Zone, we think that the beginning of the Northern Lights season in autumn is a pretty special time of year and arguably one of the best times to go on an Aurora hunting adventure.

Another Aurora hunting season is drawing to a close in Northern Scandinavia. The Northern Lights will still be visible well into April but, during the 24-hour daylight of summer’s Midnight Sun, all an Aurora hunter can do is catch up on lost sleep and long for the darker nights of autumn.

March 2018 has been one of the best months for Auroral activity in many a long year, so we did some digging. The upshot of our research is that if you want to see the Northern Lights then some of your best chances are almost certainly around the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.