AURORA BOREALIS QUOTES II
quotations about the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
Oh, it was wild and weird and wan, and ever in camp o' nights
We would watch and watch the silver dance of the mystic Northern Lights.
And soft they danced from the Polar sky and swept in primrose haze;
And swift they pranced with their silver feet, and pierced with a blinding blaze.
They danced a cotillion in the sky; they were rose and silver shod;
It was not good for the eyes of man -- 'Twas a sight for the eyes of God.
ROBERT SERVICE
"The Ballad of the Northern Lights"
The next night I take the chairlift up to the Aurora Sky Station, my feet dangling in the dark as we rise to 900m. Our arrival is timed for 10:30 pm: "magnetic midnight", when the local auroral activity should be at its most intense. Except it isn't. Everyone lolls around in the café as if some divine flight has been delayed -- but as the small print says, sightings are not guaranteed.
NIGEL TISDALL
"Northern Lights: Light at the end of the tundra", The Telegraph, November 10, 2008
See how Aurora throws her fair
Fresh-quilted colours through the air:
Get up, sweet-slug-a-bed, and see
The dew-bespangling herb and tree.
ROBERT HERRICK
"Corinna's Going a Maying"
Blush upon the cheek of night,
Posthumous, unearthly light,
Dream of the deep sunken sun,
Beautiful, sleep-walking one,
Sister of the moonlight pale,
Star-obscuring meteor veil,
Spread by heaven's watching vestals;
Sender of the gleamy crystals
Darting on their arrowy course
From their glittering polar source,
Upward where the air doth freeze
Round the sister Pleiades;--
Beautiful and rare Aurora,
In the heavens thou art their Flora,
Night-blooming Cereus of the sky,
Rose of the amaranthine dye,
Hyacinth of purple light,
Or their Lily clad in white!
CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH
"To the Aurora Borealis"
But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
With rosy lustre purpled o'er the lawn.
HOMER
Odyssey
The aurora borealis are best seen on cold, clear nights when there isn't a full moon. But just standing outside on a cold, clear night in the middle of winter in the middle of nowhere won't guarantee a sighting. Before heading out, check the auroral forecast.
ANONYMOUS
"Where, When And How To Catch The Northern Lights This Year", Huffington Post Canada, January 18, 2016
Catching a glimpse of the northern lights is apparently the top experience for Britons compiling a "bucket list" of must-do experiences before they die. It's not surprising, the aurora borealis is a breathtakingly beautiful natural phenomenon, but one that is seldom seen from the British Isles.
JIM WILD
"What caused those spectacular northern lights -- and how you can catch them next time", The Conversation, March 19, 2016
It leaps through us, through all our heavens leaps,
Extinguishing our planets, one by one,
Leaving, of where we were and looked, of where
We knew each other and of each other thought,
A shivering residue, chilled and foregone,
Except for that crown and mystical cabala.
WALLACE STEVENS
"The Auroras of Autumn"
The aurora borealis is one of the most stunning light shows on Earth, but normally, it's a treat reserved for the hardy souls living at the coldest edges of the world. The last few nights, however, people across the Northern and Southern hemispheres have enjoyed dazzling, colorful skies, thanks to a geomagnetic storm that began early this week.
MADDIE STONE
"The Nights Are Filled With Glorious Auroras This Week", Gizmodo, November 4, 2015
A latest study has suggested that our planet is not the sole planet in the solar system with aurora borealis, or Northern Lights. It turned out that the Gas Giant Jupiter also possesses a similar phenomenon. The X-ray aurora on Jupiter is "hundreds of times more energetic" and "eight times brighter" than the phenomenon seen on Earth. Researchers said that they are, in fact, bigger than the Earth's entire surface area.
JEANNE RIFE
"Earth not only planet in solar system with aurora borealis or Northern Lights", NH Voice, March 26, 2016
The southern equivalent of the northern lights, aurora australis, are only usually seen by penguins and scientists. But they are just as spectacular.
JAMES WALSH & PETER KIMPTON
"How do I ... see the northern lights?", The Guardian, October 16, 2015
Like going on safari, whale watching or fly-fishing, seeing the aurora is a beguiling marriage of sheer luck and the effort you make to be in the best place at the optimum time. Call up your favourite concierge if you want, chuck the credit card at your A-list travel agent -- honestly, up there in Cosmos Central, they just don't give a shooting star.
NIGEL TISDALL
"Northern Lights: Light at the end of the tundra", The Telegraph, November 10, 2008
In the days of yore, when the fur-wrapped peoples of the Arctic looked up at the celestial disco we now know as the aurora borealis, they would see warriors with burning swords, shimmering shoals of fish and the spirits of the dead playing football with a walrus skull. Our modern eyes can't help but see more contemporary likenesses, yet this sense of wonder binds us through time like a heartbeat.
NIGEL TISDALL
"Northern Lights: Light at the end of the tundra", The Telegraph, November 10, 2008
You will need lots of patience as auroras start out faintly. Look to the north for bands of green-white light that run in an east-west direction. As the light show intensifies over a period that can last seconds, minutes or hours, the lights streak, dance, ripple, arc or spiral southward, creating a dramatic, colourful light show. Many hotels in the destinations below offer wake up calls for northern lights viewings and tour operators are experts for pinpointing sightings.
ANONYMOUS
"Where, When And How To Catch The Northern Lights This Year", Huffington Post Canada, January 18, 2016
There is witnessing the Northern Lights, and then there is seeing the incredible aurora whilst upside down scaling a moonlit glacier!
BECKY PEMBERTON
"An illuminating night climb: Breathtaking moment aurora borealis lights up the sky behind daredevil glacier climbers", Daily Mail, April 20, 2015
According to NASA, this week's auroras--which have been visible as far south as Wisconsin and New York State--are the result of a high-speed solar wind stream, flowing out of a "coronal hole" on the surface of the Sun. Neat.
MADDIE STONE
"The Nights Are Filled With Glorious Auroras This Week", Gizmodo, November 4, 2015
One of the top items on my bucket list is to see the Aurora Borealis in person.... The breathtaking view would be so magical and slightly (okay, very) different from the lovely layer of smog we have in LA! And just looking at the beautiful photos people have taken of the spectacular Northern Lights is enough to make me want to book a ticket today.
JAIME MORRISON CURTIS
"7 Stunning Places to See the Aurora Borealis", Babble, January 24, 2014
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a-Maying.
JOHN MILTON
L'Allegro
As it was getting dark, the aurora gradually appeared, though it was dim and overshone by the bright stars. The aurora in bud looked pearl white, and slowly grew stronger concentrating its power to blossom. Later, it became slightly glowing bands of light, still static and stationary. As the lights built in intensity, the darkened color turned to green while the lights started to move and transform. When the activity grew to a greater level, they split into ribbons, floating around. In minutes, the ribbons gathered like crimson silk curtains hung vertically in the sky. The lights danced like curtains swinging in a light wind.
JIE JI
"Deep into the North, in Search of Aurora", Boston University News Service, March 24, 2016
The stars are putting on their glittering belts.
They throw around their shoulders cloaks that flash
Like a great shadow's last embellishment.
WALLACE STEVENS
"The Auroras of Autumn"