Where to Find The Optimal Places to Catch the Aurora Borealis
If you’ve never seen the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, you need to put them on your bucket list. In person, it’s a bit of an other-worldly experience, watching green, pink, red and occasionally yellow lights dancing in the sky. The phenomenon becomes more pronounced the further north you travel, so you’ll see more vivid displays in Alaska and northern Canada. But the northern lights can be nearly as brilliant across the northern border of the United States, including in the Northeast.
What Are the Northern Lights?
Scientists say that the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are a natural light display made up of energy particles from the sun that collide with molecules and atoms in our planet’s atmosphere. The sun continually emits charged particles, also referred to as solar wind. The planet’s magnetic field functions as a shield, keeping many of these particles out, but also funneling them toward both poles. When the particles finally enter into the earth’s atmosphere (near the North and South poles), they make impact with gas particles in the earth’s atmosphere, such as nitrogen and oxygen particles. The oxygen and nitrogen particles then release energy in the form of light. Because the particles collide at different altitudes and the light has to travel different distances, it takes on different colors.
Where Are the Best Places to See the Northern Lights in the Northeast?
To best view anything in the night sky, you need to be as far away from potential light pollution as possible. Fortunately, there’s an organization, the International Dark-Sky Association, that has identified “Dark Sky Places” around the planet, from Dark Sky Parks to Urban Night Sky Places. You can go to their website to find “Dark Sky Places” near you.
In Maine, DarkSky has identified both the Katahdin Woods and Acacia National Park as optimal viewing places to see the northern lights. Other locations in the Northeast include Cherry Springs State Park, in Pennsylvania, as well as the White Mountains and Bretton Woods in New Hampshire.
Tips for Improving Your Chances of Seeing the Northern Lights
In addition to choosing a location with minimal light pollution, you can also increase the likelihood of seeing northern lights by:
- Traveling north
- Watching from an open space, so that your view won’t be impeded by trees or horizons
- Watching at the right time—the view is typically optimal between 10 pm and 2 am
- Paying attention to the weather forecast—the aurora borealis are most visible on cold and clear fall and winter nights
