Can you see the northern lights with your own eyes?

Author

Andrew Walker

Published Mar 04, 2026

Can you see the northern lights with your own eyes?

Our naked eye can most easily see the green-yellow part of the spectrum where the sun emits most of its light. Green is the most common color observed but the Northern Lights can also appear white-gray. Sometimes the Northern Lights are even present but not visible to the naked eye.

Just so, can you see the Southern Lights with your eyes?

The camera sensor and long exposure will likely reveal a lot more light and colour than you can see with the naked eye! – Adjust your exposure to 10 to 30 seconds (any longer and you'll start seeing stars as trails.) Southern Lights, Aurora Australis, visible from New Zealand.

Secondly, do you need a camera to see the northern lights? You don't need a good camera

But when the aurora is weaker, it's sometimes tricky to differentiate between wispy clouds and the Northern Lights. A good camera, however, can pick up a lot more light and color than our human eyeballs can at night.

One may also ask, what do northern lights look like in real life?

When you see them in real life, the Northern Lights aren't actually very colorful at all. They often appear milky white in color, "almost like a cloud," as one seasoned traveler puts it. He says he often sees them as mostly white, with faint hints of red and pink. Only in photos do other tones emerge.

Do Northern Lights happen every night?

There is no official season since the Northern Lights are almost always present, day and night. Caused by charged particles from the sun hitting atoms in Earth's atmosphere and releasing photons, it's a process that happens constantly.

Are Southern Lights as good as Northern Lights?

You tend to find that the Aurora Borealis, in the North, gets more publicity, but the fact is that the Southern Lights can be just as impressive.

Where is the best place to see the Southern Lights?

Here are the five best spots in the world where travelers can get a great view of the elusive southern lights.

Wilsons Promontory, Australia.
Cockle Creek, Tasmania.
Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, New Zealand.
Ushuaia, Argentina.
South Georgia Island and the South Sandwich Islands.

Can you see the aurora australis with your eyes?

Don't expect to see a dancing rainbow with the naked eye though, you'll need a camera. According to Margaret Sonnemann, creator of the Aurora Australis Tasmania Facebook group (50,000+ followers) and the Aurora Chaser's Handbook, you're unlikely to see any colour. "Our eyes are not designed to pick up colour at night.

Where is the best place to see the northern lights?

The best places in the world are usually closer to the Arctic Circle, including Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

What is the difference between the northern and southern lights?

What Are Northern and Southern Lights? An aurora is a natural electric phenomenon that creates bright and colorful light displays in the sky. In the Arctic Circle, they are known as aurora borealis or the northern lights, while in the Antarctic Circle they are called aurora australis or the southern lights.

What does Borealis mean?

: an aurora that occurs in earth's northern hemisphere.

What is the best time of year to see the Southern Lights?

Spring

When can I see aurora australis?

Unlike Aurora Borealis, which is subject to extreme seasonal light changes, the Southern Lights can be viewed all year round – although most commonly during winter, May to August, and during the spring equinox in September.

Is 2020 a good year to see Northern Lights?

During the winter of 2020, the Northern Lights viewing was typical for a solar minimum year. But from 2020 onwards, there will be a slow ramp-up in solar activity, and auroras should increase in frequency, peaking in 2024/2025 with the Solar Maximum. Read more about where to see the Northern lights here.

What color are the Northern Lights?

What causes the colors? The colors most often associated with the aurora borealis are pink, green, yellow, blue, violet, and occasionally orange and white. Typically, when the particles collide with oxygen, yellow and green are produced.

Is the Northern Lights dangerous?

The Northern Lights occur so high up in the atmosphere that they don't pose any threat to people watching them from the ground. The aurora itself is not harmful to humans but the electrically charged particles produced could have some potentially negative effects to infrastructure and technology.

Are Northern Lights overrated?

Turn around and head south to catch the Auroras Australis for a change! The Northern Lights are way too overrated. If you're interested in catching a beautiful sky show that is less talked about yet equally mesmerising, then consider its lesser-known counterpart, the Southern Lights.

Do the northern lights make noise?

The northern lights do make noises that can be heard down on the ground. What the researchers still haven't figured out, they concede, is "how the auroral sounds are created." They add that: "The recorded, unamplified sounds can be similar to crackles or muffled bangs which last for only a short period of time.

Why are northern lights green?

The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth.

Where can I see Northern Lights in 2020?

What are the best places to see the Northern Lights?

Tromso, Norway. Based in the heart of the aurora zone in the Norwegian Arctic, the city is widely regarded as one of the world's best places to see the Northern Lights.
Swedish Lapland.
Reykjavik, Iceland.
Yukon, Canada.
Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland.
Ilulissat, Greenland.

Is there a Southern borealis?

Called the southern lights, or aurora australis, it's the southern cousin to the aurora borealis and can best be seen from the most southern of landmasses, such as Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica.

How do you photograph the aurora borealis?

Northern Lights Photography Settings

Step 1: Set to Manual. Set your camera to Manual.
Step 2: ISO setting. ISO 1600 is a good start.
Step 3: Aperture = f-stop. f-2.8.
Step 4: Shutter speed. 20 sec.
Step 5: Use a Tripod. Mount your camera on a tripod.
Step 6: Zoom & Focus. Zoom out (lowest mm setting on your lens)
Step 7: Remotely release the shutter.

What are the chances of seeing the Northern Lights?

Monitoring over many years the average chance of seeing the Northern Lights over a 4 night trip to Abisko is around 83%.

Can you take pictures of northern lights with iPhone?

The camera, features and apps for iPhones have come a long way since. You'll need to download a Northern Lights camera app, like Northern Lights Photo Taker. The app literally does one thing and that's to mimic the manual settings of a camera and create a long exposure shot so you capture the Northern Lights.

Are the northern lights disappearing?

No, the aurora borealis isn't disappearing, but it is expected to appear less frequently over the next decade. The northern lights take place on an 11-year solar cycle. This means less frequent northern lights, an effect that will likely last until 2024 or even 2026.

Can you take pictures of the Northern Lights?

f/2.8 is the best aperture setting for northern lights photography. F-stops values of f/3.5 or f/4 also work well for photographing the aurora. I don't recommend opening your aperture any wider than f/2.8. With very wide apertures it becomes hard to focus at night, over the entire depth of field.

What is the reason for Northern Lights?

The light show we see from the ground is caused by electrically charged particles from space entering the Earth's upper atmosphere at a very high speed. These particles originate from our star - the sun.

Are Northern Lights natural?

Polar lights (aurora polaris) are a natural phenomenon found in both the northern and southern hemispheres that can be truly awe inspiring. 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.

Are the northern lights better in Alaska or Iceland?

Coldfoot, a town in Alaska's Brooks Range mountains, offers the best chance of witnessing the Alaska Northern Lights. With a slightly longer season than Iceland, stretching from mid-September through late April, Alaska is a great no-passport-required option for U.S. residents.

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