More FAQs

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‘Are the Northern Lights always green?

Contrary to what the Instagram influencers would have you believe, the Northern Lights aren’t always green. The iconic green is the most common colour observed, but this natural phenomenon can also appear white-grey – or even have purples, reds and blues. The reason you see green pictures most often is that our eyes can most easily observe the green-yellow part of the sunlight’s spectrum. But then everyone’s perception of colour is a little different, so maybe one person sees green when another sees turquoise. 

Apparently it also depends on the weather in Space… Try get your head around that! These solar winds can whip up into solar storms and have a stronger effect on the particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. Remember from our science lesson that the colours are caused by different particles? Well, let’s think about it: which gas particles do we usually have in the air? Typically Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide and some others. Each of these will give out a different colour light. How high up in the atmosphere this collision happens makes a difference too, but we won’t get in to that!

How to photograph the Northern Lights?

Much better to go in knowing than potentially miss the shot of a lifetime because you’re having to frantically Google the answers in the Arctic Circle while simultaneously playing about with your camera settings. Our recommendation is to set your ISO between 800 and 3200, and your aperture between f/2.8 and f/5.6. You’ll also want your shutter speed running super slow, between 15 and 30 seconds. 

How close to Earth are the Northern Lights?

Looking at pictures of the Northern Lights, it can seem like they’re… right there. Like they’re shooting out from the top of mountains, or something. In reality though, the closest they ever come to Earth is about 80 km above the Earth’s surface. As a point of comparison, planes fly about 10 km above the surface. The colour of the Lights varies depending on how far above the Earth’s surface they’re occurring. Green occurs 100 km to 240 km off Earth, blue and violets – below 100 km, and reds – above 240 km. Typically.’ (Source)

Let’s continue - What are the best places to see the Northern Lights?

Start at the beginning – Tiffi and her friends learn all about the Northern Lights