Bucket list.... (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Ester: living in, cost, activity)

[Pvlinda]

Hello. I am a retired single woman living in Kansas and I am trying to complete my bucket list. One of my top 10 is to see the northern lights,,,,up close and personal.

I have read that Fairbanks area is an excellent choice to see some awesome displays. Can anyone give me any suggestions on planning a trip. When to travel and where to focus my plans. Any advise would be appreciated.

[AKStafford]

You need three things to see northern lights:
1) Aurora activity. Totally based on what the solar activity is. Random luck of the draw.
2) Clear, dark skies. The clear skies is luck of the draw, depending on the weather. The dark skies just require being away from city lights. A full moon reflecting off of the snow can be a nuisance too. Fairbanks works be being dark as long as it's between mid September and mid April.
3) Being far enough north. Fairbanks, or even Anchorage works for that. So does Iceland, Norway, Sweden, etc...

So you want a trip in the winter, you want to plan on being here a week and you want to be prepare to possibly not see them no matter how hard you try.

On the Trip Advisor Forum for Alaska, there's a Top Questions section on the right hand side. One of the topics is on viewing the Northern Lights. Alaska Forum, Travel Discussion for Alaska, United States

[Pvlinda]

Thanks for taking the time to share this information.

[RugbyDave]

I'd recommend Fairbanks over Anchortown for Aurora viewing. I've lived many years in both and would say Fairbanks tends to have more 'viewings', mostly due to cloud cover. If you're not seeing them in Fairbanks town, just head up to Ester Dome, and you'll be above the inversion. Plus, the view towards Denali is beautiful, and I've gotten tons of amazing pictures of the Aurora over Fairbanks with Denali towards the side.

However, count me in directly with AKStafford - it's really random luck of the draw. Depending on where you are, if you hear of a large solar storm coming, you can try to get up to AK in a day but I recognize that only works if you live pretty close already. Since you're in Kansas, it may cost too much for such a last minute flight.

And just for the record, it's not always "the farther north you go, the better" - google "aurora viewing ring" and you'll actually see, the places to view the Aurora form a band around the two poles. Sort of like a doughnut. Again, my words might be confusing, but you'll see what I mean.

EDIT: http://www.astonisher.com/images/aurora_ring_290pix.jpg

Good luck! Let me know if you need any low-light/photo tips!

[pch1013]

In any case, wouldn't she be well advised to book her trip to coincide with the new moon?

[cjs123]

PCH, I thought that too when I planned my first trip to Fairbanks, but I've seen the Aurora from there during all moon phases, including full.