Monday, June 9, 2014

Day 32 – A Paintbrush Across the Night Sky - The Northern Lights

When I think of natural beauty, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Northern Lights. I have actually seen these in person before, because I lived in Maine when I was young, and on rare occasions you could catch a glimpse of them. I was only about six or seven years old, so I don’t remember them that well. I do remember thinking they were really amazing (or awesome, or cool, or whatever the “it” word was back then).

Now that I am an adult, I would like to go see them again. However, I want to go somewhere farther north than Maine, and see them in their full magnificence. I found a list of places that are good for viewing the Northern Lights: http://www.fodors.com/news/photos/top-10-places-to-see-the-northern-lights#!1-intro. As you might expect, it includes very northern places like Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and so forth.

In case you were wondering (I was), the Northern Lights are caused by collisions between gaseous particles in Earth’s atmosphere with electrically charged particles from the sun that enter Earth’s atmosphere (http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html). Pale green and pink are the most common colors, but red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have also been reported. Check out this picture of this beautiful display:



What do you think? Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? Is it something you would think is worth the trip to see?

Xoxo,

Diana

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