16 replies to this topic

[bigdob24]

Would like to go on an Aurora Tour next year .

Looking for someone that has done this in the past with some recommendations.

There are a lot of advertisements on Space Weather and would like to narrow them down to the best experience.

 

 

[theskywatcher]

I went to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory a few years back to see the Aurora.   I forget the name of the company used for the viewing.  I checked to make sure the moon would not be out for the nights I was there.  The tour company picks you up at a hotel around 10 PM and drives even further north a bit, and takes you back around 2 AM.  I signed up to view for 5 nights since I wanted to make sure I saw something.  Saw it 4 nights out of 5.  Hadn't been that cold in many years - rented the winter clothing from the tour company.  The company takes pics of the aurora and takes your pic with it in the background, too.  Glad I did it.

[theskywatcher]

I now recall we stayed at the Best Western Gold Rush in Whitehorse.  Still can't recall the name of the tour company we used, but the company literally had an office inside the hotel, which made it convenient for picking up their rented winter clothing, etc.  I tried looking online to see if the tour company names jog my memory, but none did.  We made the trip in Feb/March 2019.  Perhaps contact the Best Western and ask them which (if any) tour company is in their hotel.  One more tip - your phone likely can take a time exposure.  We used ten seconds.  Worked great, even in the cold.  We also brought a small pocket camera -- not to take pics, but to screw it on to a tripod (which the tour company supplied).  We leaned the phone against the camera, so in effect the phone was "on a tripod" which you need for a time exposure.  Good luck!

[dmclouse]

I now recall we stayed at the Best Western Gold Rush in Whitehorse.  Still can't recall the name of the tour company we used, but the company literally had an office inside the hotel, which made it convenient for picking up their rented winter clothing, etc.  I tried looking online to see if the tour company names jog my memory, but none did.  We made the trip in Feb/March 2019.  Perhaps contact the Best Western and ask them which (if any) tour company is in their hotel.  One more tip - your phone likely can take a time exposure.  We used ten seconds.  Worked great, even in the cold.  We also brought a small pocket camera -- not to take pics, but to screw it on to a tripod (which the tour company supplied).  We leaned the phone against the camera, so in effect the phone was "on a tripod" which you need for a time exposure.  Good luck!

Thanks

[neoclassicalguy]

Is Iceland a possible destination? I have a friend that may still conduct tours there.

[MeteorBoy]

Churchill, Manitoba in Canada.

 

I don't have any experience with aurora tour operators.  However, I used to live there because I was researching aurora (using sounding rockets).

 

The aurora is out, usually all or most of the sky, about two nights out of three around magnetic midnight (~11pm).  This is not a clear sky location but skies are best in the winter when the nights are long and all open water is now frozen.

[MEE]

Try https://www.eclipsetours.com/

I have not used them, but Paul Maley has lots of experience. See the “past trips” to get an idea of how his aurora tours have been

[SporadicGazer]

Another option I haven't seen mentioned yet:

 

https://skyandtelesc...l/iceland-2024/

 

I don't have experience with Sky & Telescope tours, but they sound sort of deluxe and well planned.

[Arcane1125]

Has anyone done the Iceland - Aurora tour sponsored by Sky and Telescope?

[SporadicGazer]

Has anyone done the Iceland - Aurora tour sponsored by Sky and Telescope?

Yes.  We went on the S&T 2024 Tour I linked above and it was outstanding.

 

The care they took to maximize our chances of seeing Aurora was impressive.  (Dark sky locations, scheduled around the new moon, etc.)  We did in fact see them several nights, though probably not as impressive as they are at their very best, certainly very visible and very exciting.  Of course, YMMV as we also got rained out at two of the more promising lodgings.

 

We, (me, my wife, two sisters & BILs), all thought the rest of the tour was well curated and gave us an outstanding flavor for Iceland, its geology, and history.  The included meals were of outstanding quality and mostly enjoyed though there was very limited choice.  For support we had Gary Seronik from S&T, a rep from Spears Travel (the US organizer), and a driver & guide from a local company.  We were as well taken care of as on any tour any of us have ever taken.

 

Would I recommend it if it meets your goals?  Absolutely.  Will we take it again?  Maybe, it was that well done, though I think we'd prefer a different daytime itinerary for our next visit to Iceland.

[Arcane1125]

Thank you for the assessment! Much appreciated!

[mrflibbles]

I did not take the tour, but I would highly recommend Iceland. I went once in the winter and once in early autumn. We self guided both times, except for single excursions.

 

Most of the hotels will have day trips offered if you want to self guide and not take a fully guided package. I took a single day aurora tour back in December of 2015 and it was well worth it. I was worried we weren't going to have an aurora, but my wife said "so we go out there and we look at the stars instead of the aurora!" We ended up getting both. It happened to be moonless, so before the aurora the skies were quite dark, when the aurora came out it was brighter than a full moon but green. it was like someone turned on a green nightlight. 

 

The one downside of Iceland is it is quite expensive. For example: we went back to Iceland in 2018 taking advantage of IcelandAir's free layover deal, taking 3 days in Iceland before spending 24 days in England. Our car rental in Iceland came to $450ish our car rental in England came to $650ish which included renting in London and dropping it off in Glasgow. Oh and the car in Iceland was a base model Suzuki Swift (a tiny p.o.s. car) and our car in England was a fully loaded Mercedes sedan. After spending so much in Iceland upgrading to a Mercedes seemed like a drop in a bucket. 

 

Just try not to think about money too hard and you will have a good time. Good luck Aurora hunting!

Edited by mrflibbles, 06 June 2025 - 07:20 PM.

[Arcane1125]

Thanks for the warning about $$. We decided to book with the tour for that very reason. Really excited about going there…it was definitely on my bucket list!

 

Chris

[mrflibbles]

Nice!

Another tip: some of the locals are a little fed up of overtourism and rude foreigners, but learning a little icelandic goes a long way. Its a difficult language, but you needn't be fluent. Simply learning please and thank you got us very far and earned us a lot of respect.

[BrushPilot]

Don't delay for very long — solar max is starting to fade. 

If you self guide or at least have a car you can use, more possibilities are there.

Meteor Boy talked of magnetic midnight at 11:00PM as the best odds but an intense sub-storm can happen at any time. 

There are websites that give space weather alerts that are timely and they will email you warnings. You just never know when you are going to get your socks blown off.

 

I was on Fire Lookouts up north during the late Seventies and early Eighties which was a legendary Solar Max. There were sights that I still can't process.

One particular night in May of '81 I was painting until 2:00AM, turned off the generator and went outside to have a wee. I was watching downwards as my eyes dark adapted and saw that the grass was a weird 'dried blood' colour which got more intense as I took care of business. Then I looked up...

The entire sky was crimson red with only Jupiter and a few stars showing through it and it was pulsing. No curtains, no streamers, no rays, just pulsing.

I ALMOST got on the radio to alert people of the display but then thought maybe they would send the rubber helicopter to take me out if I did that so I just was flabbergasted all by myself.

[PKDfan]

A Grand display in Grande Praire Alberta late October 2021 that lasted for about 15minutes in two cycles.

A brief strong display with mainly red then a few minutes of nothing them Wham this display with green and eventually some vertical yellow spikes.

A time elapsed photo of about 12-14seconds with Fuji velvia 100ISO IIRC.

I've seen hundreds of displays but none like this and so thank the good graces that i had my medium format camera and its wide angle lense close by.

A field width of 70.5degrees for those curious.


CSS
Lance

Edit perhaps i wasn't very clear with my post. This fabulous display had no precursors to it nor afterwards and so if you weren't outside during that very brief time you would have seen nothing. This maximum is very very quiet here at 53.5°N. I usually am entranced and amazed with the variety of displays up here but not this cycle.

Edited by PKDfan, 11 June 2025 - 04:05 PM.

[MeteorBoy]

I can't comment on any tours at all.  What I can comment on is Churchill on Hudson Bay.

 

It gets plenty of aurora, maybe 2 nights out of 3, magnetic midnight is about 11:00pm.  Usually all sky displays, generally green only.  So, so for clear skies.  There are quite a few auroral tour companies there.  Churchill is technically arctic, so it's plenty cold (typically -30C).  It can be very windy there so high wind-chills and blizzards are pretty common.

 

If you go in the autumn you can also take a polar bear tour (you're guaranteed to see them, more bears there than anywhere else on the planet).  Plus Churchill is home to Fort Prince of Wales a huge star-shaped stone fortress built in the late 1700s (it's very close by but a little difficult to get to).  You can get to Churchill by airliner or train, no roads.

 

How do I know this stuff?  I used to live there.  Why was I living there?  Because Churchill used to have a permanent sounding rocket launch site.  I was one of the Team members that launched many sounding rockets into the aurora.  On two separate launches we shut down an all-sky aurora for the first (and I believe only times).  Wonderful work.

Edited by MeteorBoy, 18 June 2025 - 11:51 AM.