Let There Be Light

Cloudy with showers

 "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ Hamlet, Shakespeare

Norway has an extensive system of barrier islands that protect its coast. We wound our way through these channels to escape the tail of the hellacious storm still plaguing the far north.

The sun struggles to break through!

We left Narvik convinced we'd lost our chance to see the Aurora Borealis. Even though we'd hoped to be wakened last night with a three dings from the bridge announcing they'd been spotted, we slept uninterrupted. No lights for us as we streamed southward. 

So we did the next best thing today. We watched a lecture about what causes the Northern Lights. People have pondered this question for ages--even the Greek philosophers wrote about them!--but it is only in the 21st century that we have the definitive scientific answer. 

To create a borealis, you need an active star for a sun with lots of flares and spewing of solar material into the void. Your planet must also have a electromagnetic field, which we thankful do, otherwise life would be impossible due to the solar radiation bombardment. (This is why I always shake my head when people start talking about colonizing Mars. Even if we could get there, we'd have to live exclusively underground lest we be fried by that radiation.) 

Back to the lights...when solar particles hit our biosphere, the planet's magnetic field draws them to both of our poles, concentrating them in those areas. The colors created are the product of interaction with the elements in the atmosphere--oxygen for green at low altitudes and red in the very highest, hydrogen for blue, helium for purple.

And our eyes are not always able to perceive the lights, even when they are present. However, another lecturer explained that our cameras can! Because the human eye has cells designated as rods and cones, rods for night vision and cones in daylight, we don't see faint colors in the dark. It's more like gradations of grey. The camera, however, has no such limitations and can "look longer" in one place to amass more data about what it's seeing.    

Don't get too excited about this picture. It was from the lecture, not from our experience. 

But we spent a restful day on the Venus, visiting the spa, reading, listening to live music, and generally basking in each other's company. 

He loves his creme brulee!

And, as the DH says, no day is wasted if it ends with creme brulee! 

Our onboard entertainment team presented an ABBA review in the theatre, which is always fun. As a Scandinavian band, ABBA is afforded a place of honor on Viking ships and along with the Beatles always gets a tribute show! Most of the music is fluff and would likely have passed into oblivion if not for the success of the Momma Mia franchise, but I can't deny the heartfelt cry of "The Winner Takes it All!" 

We went to sleep satisfied that we'd had a "close encounter" with the Northern Lights, if not an actual one, by learning so much about them and our cruise was certainly not wasted just because we hadn't been able to see them.

Then at a little after 11PM, 3 dings sounded in our stateroom and the captain announced that the lights had been sighted off the port side. If we wanted to see them, we were urged to go to Deck 9.

Pandemonium!

Imagine for a minute a whole ship's company of eager sky-watchers stampeding for the port rails, jostling for a place. Then imagine a few who'd skipped the photography lecture trying to snap pics of the sky with their flash on! There was so much light pollution on the ship itself, the added flashes only made things worse. The DH and I eventually worked our way down to Deck 8 with a bulkhead to our backs to create a little darker space. 

To the naked eye, the lights appeared as ripples of grey or very light green. I learned to hold my phone still for about 10 seconds so it could grab as much color as possible. 

Managed to get some reds and blues along with the greens in this "celestial city!"

Eventually, I could see movement in the sky, albeit in undulating shades of grey, and knew where to direct my camera's eyes to capture something.

Even the lights of the small town in the distance couldn't outshine the aurora! 

All this goes to show that we are constantly surrounded by things of which we are not always aware. I'm not talking about just natural phenomena. I'm talking about the spiritual realm. All we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell is not all there is. There are things beyond our ability to perceive. Truly, there are more things in heaven and earth...

Here is the DH's Northern Lights montage. Enjoy!