Friday 16 December 2011

Here is a good site you can visit to find out travel, accomodation and entertainment information about Iceland. The Northern Lights are one of Icelands main tourist attractions.
In Iceland, one of the best places to view the Northern Lights is a blace called the 'Blue Lagoon' there is a hotel called 'The Northern Light Inn' which is worth checking out if you are interested in visiting the Northern Lights in Iceland.

Thursday 15 December 2011

The AMAZING Ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi (sweden)

                                          This is an outside view of the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi.

                                     

                         There are amazing sculptures inside the hotel such as the ice bar (as seen below)
In the hotel there are amazing hand-crafted rooms such as the
Art Suite individually handcrafter to look like a dragons den (as seen below).

One of the many amazing rooms in the Jukkasjarvi hotel 

Monday 12 December 2011

Visiting the Northern Lights

When visiting the Northern Lights, a good place to look  would be: 'Specialised Tours'. This is a sight which provides tourists with travel information on destinations such as the Swedish town of Kiruna, an extraordinary Arctic centre with a wide variety of activities to keep you entertained such as: reindeer-sledding, cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing. In January every year, Europe's largest snow festival takes place here, with ice-sculpture competitions and sled races and more. In the town or Kiruna, there is an Institute of Space Physics, there you can research and find out everything you need to know about the northern lights. Three-night breaks start at £595 per person for departures between 11 December and 16 April, including flights to Kiruna via Stockholm and B&B accommodation.
Beside the town of Kiruna there is the famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi. The company also arranges short winter holidays here from £895 per person inclusive of flights, transfers, B&B accommodation (one night in Stockholm, one night in icy splendour, and one night in a nearby heated cabin), snowmobile safari, one dinner at the Ice Hotel, and use of thermal clothing.

Friday 9 December 2011

WHAT ARE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS? The amazing display of lights known as the Northern Lights is caused when a set of energetic charged particles collide with atoms in a layer of the atmosphere known as the 'thermosphere'. For a more in detail description i went to a site and found this:
The origin of the aurora begins on the surface of the sun when solar activity ejects a cloud of gas. Scientists call this a coronal mass ejection (CME). If one of these reaches earth, taking about 2 to 3 days, it collides with the Earth’s magnetic field. This field is invisible, and if you could see its shape, it would make Earth look like a comet with a long magnetic ‘tail’ stretching a million miles behind Earth in the opposite direction of the sun.
When a coronal mass ejection collides with the magnetic field, it causes complex changes to happen to the magnetic tail region. These changes generate currents of charged particles, which then flow along lines of magnetic force into the Polar Regions. These particles are boosted in energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere, and when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce dazzling auroral light.
LINK TO THIS SIGHT

WHEN IS IT BEST TO SEE THE LIGHTS? The best times to see the lights is December to March when nights are longest and the sky darkest at about 6 p.m. to 1a.m. This light display lasts aproximatly 10-15 minutes s the lights twist and turn in the sky. And although they are their present, we cannot see the Northern Lights unless it is dark.

WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO SEE THE LIGHTS:  The Northern Lights can be seen throughout: northern Scandinavia, Iceland and the southern tip of Greenland, over northern Canada (Northwest Territories, Manitoba and the Yukon), Alaska and along the northern coast of Siberia. To beLake Laberge, Yukon Territory, Canada more specific, the very best destinations are:
- Abisko, Northern Sweden
- Tromsø, Northern Norway
- Lake Laberge, Yukon Territory, Canada
- Saariselkä, Lapland, Finland

Friday 2 December 2011

Introduction

Hi, my name is scott. Welcome to my blog :) Over the next while i will be posting information that i hope will be usefull in informing you about the Northern Lights (Aurora). I decided to write about this because I personally find the Northern Lights amazing and because i have always wondered what they were and where i could go to see them.