Auroras in twilight

[M_J_Helin]

Southern Finland in early May. The nights don´t get dark any more. Northern sky was light when I arrived by a bog.
Around 00:40 am the auroras appeared. So beautiful. They were visible almost three hours, until the arriving morning washed the lights away.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Matti,

Very nice! I like the aurora looking like a crown above the horizon.

So it's best to see the Aurora in winter because it's darker long? The dark skies help the Milky Way to show up better?

 

[M_J_Helin]

Hey Matti,

Very nice! I like the aurora looking like a crown above the horizon.

So it's best to see the Aurora in winter because it's darker long? The dark skies help the Milky Way to show up better?

Thanks!

Yes, the best time is from September to April. Around two hours prior and after midnight.

The best areas for seeing the northern (or southern) lights are of course close to the poles. I live around four hundred miles from the polar circle. It's not optimal but not too bad either. The thing about living here in (relative) north is that the closer we get to the summer, the longer the daylight lasts. Finally around June/July the sun sets around 10-11 pm and rises around 3-4am. And the night is as light as a cloudy day. It washes the night sky away, we can see around a dozen stars, no more.
Even crazier it gets when you live on the polar circle, or over it. The sun doesn't set. It stays above the horizon 24/7. The closer you get to the pole, the longer the nightless night lasts. We are talking about months.

During winters it's the opposite. Here in the southern Finland the sun rises around 9am and sets around 2-3pm in December /Jan. And you guessed it, above the polar circle the sun doesn't rise, at all.

 

[AlanLichty]

So in mid winter you could take star photos in the middle of the day above the polar circle? Wow.

 

[M_J_Helin]

So in mid winter you could take star photos in the middle of the day above the polar circle? Wow.

Pretty much
Of course the sky isn't pitch black, during the polar winter night the closer you are the polar circle, there is twilight. But if you would go higher, be in the north pole, the night would be totally black, 24 hours a day. Imagine the star trail photos you could take. They would be circles

 

[Bob Denton]

I like this!