Northern Lights

If you haven't noticed yet I finally changed the title to our blog. We are far from being in the valley of the sun! It took awhile to think of a name but we finally decided on the Northern Lights thing. If your like me, I was clueless as to what the heck Northern Lights even meant and now I only hope to be fortunate enough to see this amazing phenomenon that Ft. McMurray boasts as a tourist attraction!

Here is a little science lecture: (http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/English/aurora_borealis.html)



"The Northern Lights are scientifically referred to as "Aurora Borealis". This phenomenon occurs when the sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet."

This other site also had some neat information on the Northern Lights: http://www.fortmcmurraytourism.com/

"And the skies of night were alive with light,with a throbbing, thrilling flame; Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came.
It swept the sky like a giant scythe, it quivered back to a wedge; Argently bright, it cleft the night, with a wavy golden edge." -Poetry of Robert Service

"The Ballad of the Northern Lights", describes the northern skies of Fort McMurray most cold, clear winter evenings. Much folklore exists surrounding the Aurora; to the Inuit, the dancing lights were spirits on their way to heaven. To Siberians, they were children playing soccer in the sky with a walrus skull. Some believe the road to heaven is hard to find so former lost souls light up the night sky to make the journey a little easier for those who are searching for the ultimate destination.



Displays can vary from just a few minutes to several hours and colors and movements are hard to predict. Sometimes the spectacle is like a bright dance, other times just a muted glow. Most often the lights are white and green but on rare occasions, red northern lights tower miles high above the northern skies. One thing is certain; no matter how many times you see the Aurora Borealis, it leaves you in awe, frozen in your tracks, gazing at the cross roads between visible and invisible forces of nature.



How neat to be able to experience the Northern Lights...I hope this winter will be a good year for viewing. I will have the camera out and ready!!