Aurora Chase January 2013

[Dorsetbred]

We fly off tomorrow and the weather where we are heading has turned or is turning to snow. So aurora might be a bit alusive. However the scenery will be stunning. My 4th Grandchild is also proving to be alusive and we are heading away a liitle sad because we may not be around for the birth.

Manchester airport will not hopefully be snowed in and flights should take off on time. Pete storm took off today and will be there now. I am told last nights aurora was fabulous. heyho...

Will be putting up a video tomorrow evening once we arrive in Kiruna.

Tom....

Ha Tom, having arrived at Manchester airport this morning in the downpour, I think flights were already delayed (8am) so hopefully you managed to get out not too late.

[John Hanrahan]

Have a blast Bruce and Janet. Looking forward to pics and updates.

[Tom Lynch]

Well the first thing I wanted to do when i got to Stockholme was show you the snow

However here is Manchester

The second thing tha tI wanted to show was them de-icing the planes in Stockholme

However an hour later , here is Manchester

We eventually got away and landed in Kiruna at 10.15pm The strange thing is it is -14C warmer that normal.

So hello Kiruna, light pollution in the town pretty bad so may not see anything tonight , will still try though.

Lets see what tomorrow brings . Tom

Edited January 21, 2013 by Tom Lynch

[Tom Lynch]

well we arrived in Abisko and it was only 400 mtrs from the station to the lodge, 400 mtrs !!

What a 400 mtrs

[Tom Lynch]

.Went for another walk to blow away the cobwebs

..

it certainly did that -17 wind chill i think

..

.slim chance auroa tonight hey....

[Tom Lynch]

Well snow showers rained and so little chance of aurora. We had to go and grab some shopping i.e. beers

Had to gird the loins

Went out later to see what could be seen

Tom

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tom Lynch

[Tom Lynch]

Went out with camera for a practice. New tri pod blew over need to hang camera bag on it , like Kim said.

Need to do a bit more work.

Went out again at 1.30am and fell flat on me back, fortunately a I had so many layers , like Michellin man I didnt get hurt

[Dorsetbred]

.Went for another walk to blow away the cobwebs

..

it certainly did that -17 wind chill i think

..

.slim chance auroa tonight hey....

So a swedish policeman might say "Hey,hey, hey,hey" (ALLO ALLO) no wonder the reindeer are confused!

Edited January 23, 2013 by Dorsetbred

[Tom Lynch]

Thursday ! What happened to Wednesday ??

Will have to post shortly but to keep a long story short we were sold a return ticket on a train to Norway that wan't actually coming back. I said what time .is the last train he says that this is the last train, so says I what time does i.t go back and shall we get on. It doesnt go back he says it is the last train to here. So where is it now going to, the sidings says he.

So instead of going up to the Sky Station we were stranded in Norway. We tried everything to get back but the roads were blocked with snow.

Once we had accepted our situation we had to find a hotel and bite the flipping bullet wondering who was to blame we were clearly told is was a return train and we would have about 25 mins in Narvic, Norway.

We then went out playing in the snow , it put down 40Centimtres. and the worried train would get back .. However we are here now . No aurora last night and cloudy. at the moment..

Videos later

Tom

Edited January 24, 2013 by Tom Lynch

[shuggee]

What a palaver Tom! Enjoying your story here

[Dorsetbred]

Thursday ! What happened to Wednesday ??

Will have to post shortly but to keep a long story short we were sold a return ticket on a train to Norway that wan't actually coming back. I said what time .is the last train he says that this is the last train, so says I what time does i.t go back and shall we get on. It doesnt go back he says it is the last train to here. So where is it now going to, the sidings says he.

So instead of going up to the Sky Station we were stranded in Norway. We tried everything to get back but the roads were blocked with snow.

Once we had accepted our situation we had to find a hotel and bite the flipping bullet wondering who was to blame we were clearly told is was a return train and we would have about 25 mins in Narvic, Norway.

We then went out playing in the snow , it put down 40Centimtres. and the worried train would get back .. However we are here now . No aurora last night and cloudy. at the moment..

Videos later

Tom

I suppose as it's partly cloudy Tom, seems there's no action to miss right now.

Still waiting for those pictures,

Edited January 24, 2013 by Dorsetbred

[Dorsetbred]

I'm seeing aurora in Abisko, where' s Tom now?

[Tom Lynch]

Great aurora chase

Well as far as the aurora ia concerned if it was the only thing we we went to see it was a bust. However it wasnt and I got to share the experience that is Abisko with janette.

We did the train from Kiruna to Abisko and ate reindeer stew, we watched the dog sleighs, we took the train into Norway with views to die for and ate moose burgers with gravy and mashed potatoe. Spent the night in Norway (unplanned) where it put down over three foot of snow.

The northern lights are like tornadoes , they can come out the day after you go home. We unfortunately had snow showers every night except one when activity was quiet.

We also saw a live moose and her baby whilst we were on a walk dow to the frozen lake. Here are some highlights.

There were other people we met and I wanted the aurora to do a show for them and so if there were some tonight that is great.

Tom

[Dorsetbred]

Snownado's and snow devils, oh what fun.....

[Tom Lynch]

My video blog are close to the end but here is one to be going on with

Tom

[Dorsetbred]

Nice one Tom (and wife)

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

I'm pleased you and your wife still had a great time Tom.

Thanks for keeping us updated, it's been interesting.

I'm off to Iceland next Wednesday for my attempt at seeing them although if we don't, there is plenty else to see in Iceland so I'm not too concerned about the northern lights at the moment.

If it's ok with people, I might start a seperate thread next week to keep anyone updated who is interested.

[Dorsetbred]

I'm pleased you and your wife still had a great time Tom.

Thanks for keeping us updated, it's been interesting.

I'm off to Iceland next Wednesday for my attempt at seeing them although if we don't, there is plenty else to see in Iceland so I'm not too concerned about the northern lights at the moment.

If it's ok with people, I might start a seperate thread next week to keep anyone updated who is interested.

OK, Mark it's down to you now to find this illusive thing called the Aurora, clearly it knew Tom was searching for it and hide.

Show us what your made of, bring home those pictures

[Dorsetbred]

Ok so pictures from our viewing session can be found at:

http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/auroraflights/S13/20130206_BOH.html