Look!

Err, it's quite dark. Click on it for a better view.



Sorry to interrupt my Australian travels, but I just had to show you this picture that I took late last night. Isn't it brilliant?

Okay, I admit, it's not quite the image I was hoping for, but it's what it represents that is so fantastic to me. Any idea what it is?

Yes, aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.

Seeing the northern lights features large in my list of 20 challenges to be achieved in my gap year. As challenges go it is not very physically demanding, but ticking it off required a lot of luck and some planning.

I considered taking a trip to Iceland, Norway or Finland, but even a few days in any of these places would have cost over £1,000 and that's without beer money. Even then I would not have been guaranteed a sighting.

The aurora is a very unusual phenomenon. I'm not going explain the technicalities of how it occurs as that will mean cutting and pasting from Wikipedia or some such site to bring a level of detail that will bore both of us. Let me just explain my own understanding and if anyone reading this knows better then I'm happy to be corrected.

The northern (and southern) lights are directly related to solar activity i.e. sun spots and solar flares. These give off what is known as the solar wind, a flow of ions away from the sun. This wind would be lethal to us were it not for earth's magnetic field that protects us, much in the same way that the Starship Enterprise's forward shields protect it from Klingon photon torpedoes. Although the solar wind is deflected around the earth, some ions do reach us as they are dragged into our atmosphere in the backwash as they reach the far side of the earth, much in the same way that a fast moving vehicle will produce a slip stream behind it that sucks in other objects, such as cyclists. These ions react with our magnetic field to create a geomagnetic storm which is visible as a ring of light around the earth near its poles. For reasons not fully understood, the aurora are most prominent around the time of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

All that is my way of saying that this time of year affords one of the best opportunities for seeing the northern lights.

I chose to take my chances and view the lights as cheaply as possible by joining a trip aboard a chartered jet that flew north from Doncaster.

I was one of about 170 people who gathered at Robin Hood Airport last night for the trip. The evening began with talks by experts, Paul Money, a reviewer for Sky at Night magazine, and Steve Lawrence, a co-presenter on the Sky at Night TV programme. Paul told his rapt audience about what would be visible in the night sky and Steve explained the mechanics of the aurora borealis. He ended, rather dramatically with the aurora forecast. This is never precise, but takes into account a number of factors, including solar activity, to rate the possibility of seeing the northern lights on a scale of 1 to 9. Our chances were rated at 2. Not disastrous but it could have been better.

The talks over, we boarded the plane and headed north. Half an hour into the journey every light in the cabin was switched off to accustom our eyes tom the dark. The astronomers on board then explained what could be seen out of the windows, whilst the passengers played musical chairs to give everyone a chance of the window seat.

What was good was to have an expert pointing out features in the night sky - the different constellations and visible galaxies. I learned a lot that will stand me in good stead next time I get my telescope out of the garage. Three weeks ago I was stood atop a small mountain in New Zealand with a perfect view of the night sky above me. It was breathtaking and I'm afraid that the view out of a plane window can never match that experience.

As we ventured further north there was good news. The faint outline of the aurora became visible. The plane captain kindly kept going until we reached 63 degrees north, which may not sound like much but that's further north than Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki. The Arctic Circle is just over 66 degrees north of the equator.

The plane ran legs east and west to give both sides an equal chance to see the aurora in the northern sky. Musical chairs gave way to pass the parcel as it was very much a case of being next to the window at the right time when the lights were on your side. They also pulsed brighter and darker to make it even more of a lottery. I thought I was going to miss out as the two elderly ladies on my row seemed to have their timing better than mine. Luck prevailed. I was in the hot seat as the plane made a bonus run of just 2 minutes. As we turned around the glorious lights came into full view before me. Once more that feeling of elation raced through me as I realised that I had done something that was important to me.

I made a wild stab at a photo, giving my camera a 15 second blast of bulb setting at ISO 3200 (which is why the picture is so grainy). I didn't have time for another shot as I felt compelled to allow the ladies a view of the aurora, which was the brightest it had been all night.

I didn't have a back up plan. If the aurora had not been visible last night I would have simply failed a task. The satisfaction at seeing such a brilliant phenomenon is immense.

The real value of last night is the inspiration it has given me to spend more time studying the night skies and learning about the universe we live in. You don't need to do what I did to be awed. Just go outside on clear night, preferably as far away from light pollution as you can, and look up.

Orion is the most prominent constellation in the sky right now. That reddish star at the top left of Orion is Betelguese - red giant. If that was our sun it would be so big that earth would be inside it! One day Betelguese will go supernova and give is a free firework display. It may already have done so as the light from it has taken 500 years to reach our eyes. Saturn is also visible and Mars is the most prominent it will be for another 2 years.

Beyond that there are always meteors to be seen and satellites passing by. Not to mention the space station or the space shuttles which can be tracked.

Go on. Look up and enjoy the view from our very own spaceship, travelling through the universe at 67,000 mph. Hold on tight!

Live long and prosper.