THE SCIENCE BIT
ing and even and whale spotting. Great. A two-week trip gives 14 opportunities to see the lights especially so because this is a cruise and often miles away from any light pollution.
Prices start from £4,465 and include all food and drink. The trip is September 22 to October 5 on the Sea Spirit.
www.quarkexpeditions.com Tel: 0808 120 2333
SWEDEN SKI SAFARI
The Aurora Skystation in the Abisko National Park, Björkliden.
You will be able to visit the Skystation near Björkliden. A short chair-lift rides up to summit to the Skystation, where there is an outdoor viewing deck and a restaurant to view the Aurora. Even in the dark you will have views of the Tornetrask frozen lake, and while there you’ll be given notes about the Northern lights and tips on how to photograph them. Exceptional. The Skystation is regarded as one of the best places in the world to view the northern lights. The location is fortunate to have special climatic conditions which make it the driest area in Sweden, where it is rarely cloudy. It is also a long way out into the country and is not affected by light pollution from neighbouring towns.
From £699 for four nights for two adults in a double/twin room in Hotel Fjället in Björkliden leaving on March 2. Flights, transfers and bed and breakfast accommodation included.
www.skisafari.com Tel: 01273 2240
NORWAY HUSKY SLEDDING
The base is at Tromsø, a lively city surrounded by blue fjords and mountains.
This trip includes sight-seeing such as the Arctic Cathedral designed to look like an iceberg. At Tromsø Wilderness Camp you will slip into a special cold-weather suit and Aurora borealis, the lights of the northern hemisphere, means ‘dawn of the north’. It happens when solar wind particles collide with air molecules turning energy into light. The process starts 91,000,000 miles away when the sun ejects solar flares containing charged particles. Some disappear into space while others are carried by solar wind into Earth’s atmosphere around the Polar Regions. Once there, the charged particles react with the gasses creating auroral ovals around the top and bottom of our planet. The result is the most spectacular light show on earth with the various gasses giving off their own hues of green, purples, reds, blues and violets.