The Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland
15 september - 4 October 2025.
15 september - 4 October 2025.
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My 17th trip to Rovaniemi and Kätkävaara is nearing.
26-06-2025:
In the past weeks I replaced one of my lenses by a way better and way lighter version. Concerning travel weight this was absolutely necessary. So I've been busy selecting the lenses to take with me for the Moose and Eagle (if still at the nest, which I highly doubt by the date). The terrain is extremely rough so the heavier the cameras the more difficult to keep them safe in the van.
03-06-2025:
Initiated the first operational preparations for trip 17 to the Aurora.
04-08-2025:
Added extensive information about the relevance of the moon phases and how to read them when planning for an Aurora tour.
30-08-2025:
Started packing. Open suitcases on the floor and dumping stuff according to my extensive checklist in them. As my equipment is quite specific I can't afford to forget items. Apart from some basic stuff they are simply not obtainable where I go. This time my simple but effective Skytracker Pro comes along for some wide view astrophotography when Aurora lets me down. It has only the RA axis countering the Earths rotation but for wide field that is enough.
I start this early so I can see what needs repair/replacement/charged/replenished/supplemented.
14-09-2025:
All checklists completed, alarms set. Final countdown...
15 September: Game On!
Extended travel
I was off on time but in the night a BIG tree decided to give up and blocked the road to the train station. That forced us to take a more narrow road which caused some problems with drivers that have no spatial awareness. But I was on time for the most stressful part of the journey, the leg to the airport. There however everything sped up considerably and with my priority I was airside about an hour earlier than anticipated. Now waiting to board my Finnair Airbus 350-900 business class throne🤓😎.
Helsinki. Late arrival due to wind at Amsterdam which blocked departure. On top of that we arrived at gate 46 which is outside of the Schengen area. That resulted in disembarking the plane at the rear where a bus was waiting to get us to the Schengen area. But before you have unloaded 290 passengers... So that was bound to surpass the waiting abilities of connecting flights. My second time delay in 12,5 years (fog at Amsterdam at 18 march 2015). Next flight to Rovaniemi at 21:50 local time which is at the moment of writing this 4hrs and 10 minutes from now. My 16:00 flight was supposed to wait, well the system said that anyway. However the flight couldn't due to other flights on its gate. So I got a voucher for €17.50 to kill time and needs until my next flight.
Apart from my handling this delay there is not much lost. What is kind of good in this situation is that all my luggage has AirTags so I found out that they are both still at Helsinki and yet on their way to Rovaniemi. The weather is bad, rain and 13 degrees. Missing the supermarket opening hours forces me to keep it down to whatever i can get on the voucher. Just hoping the rain will pause for a moment when I have to pickup my keys.
The weather forecast is extremely bad to poor until friday night which looks a bit useable or sunday looking better. But the forecasts are valid only at the moment they're issued so let's keep the fingers crossed...
Waiting and writing...(180 degree panorama)
Aurora from the plane at some 10km altitude. It really is extremely difficult to do this with any camera. Complicating is that I cannot focus my iPhone 13 Pro Max manually:
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16 September:
Lightroom and AI breakthrough
Todays title was formulated by tomorrows discovery. Time travel of you wish, which makes it sound like I am way ahead of my time 🙃😵💫. But to show the illustrative images I had to process them with a technique that I only found out while preparing them for this dates entry.
So what was going on? Well the day started off slow. Went to the mall to take care om some first minute things. Things defined by having them done in case of a situation of sudden break and departure. That can be any situation you can think of from illness to WW3, the latter being more optional than ever before though I must say Finland is scrutinizing its 1200km border with diagnosed lunatic Putin.
But... back to direct reality. The weather is looking bad to say the least. There is no good forecast all the way up to friday. Thick cloud cover on all 3 levels (low, mid and high altitude) high humidity and bad transparency of the atmosphere, the latter being not so important for the Aurora but more for astrophotography. So far for the situational awareness. Then there is of course the main reason for the journey: space weather. That is quite moderate but that being said there is hardly any predictability in that though apps want you to believe there is. And exactly that is what was on the stove, cooking invisible to all monitors... Spoiler alert: cliffhanger!
In town I paid a visit to my friend of Lapland Welcome the safari company. No clients and no expectations but the next day a trip to the Zoo was the plan. So noted. But nothing in Nordic life is a certainty and a good hour or so later the Zoo was scrapped and an Aurora tour was announced. Someone had shown interest in the special version: 'Aurora in the rain'. That sounds crazy and you know what? IT IS! 🌧️💦🤪💦🌧️ But again... another BUT. The weather systems here is highly reliable in being unreliable, specifically volatile. Hill where we go creates its own micro climate and the Aurora (if intense) seems to help in creating some rise in pressure though this has never been scientifically proven. Anyway... at any atmospheric condition we will run the tour.
21:10hrs. Pickup. Anthony at the wheel welcoming me as only he can, leaving the clients baffled😂. We have a very special understanding. The stops down our 60km drive deliver nothing so we arrived at our destination and walked the last bit to the Kota, a wooden sort of garden shed meets BBQ shelter. Nothing special at that moment and the tale of the Northern Lights is spread to the clients along with drinks and food. And a regular check of the sky in between the sounds of the soft pouring rain....
Then Anthony came back in and got me out with the message to have a look alongside. There were hard to sign spots drawing the rims of clouds and the treelike was discernible. As there was no moon at all and starlight isn't strong enough to penetrate this thick layer of clouds it could hardly be anything else than Lady Aurora. Staring with peripheral vision revealed movement but was it lower and thus darker clouds moving or... Only one way to determine: a camera. So yes the clouds were green! But being this thick we could hardly make anything of it apart from that there had to be quite a show going on. And that is what we got. Moving ghostly spots of light somewhere in those clouds.
Then the cliffhanger... Processing the photos I shot I discovered that my software, which had been updated only a day before my journey started, was altered. I had discovered a way to partly penetrate the clouds a few years ago but that has been taken to the next level 🤯😱🥳 and is just one thing. You do not want that on the whole photo and selecting tree lines is a monks work. That is where AI finally proves its worth to me and exactly that had been boosted with som seemingly easy extras. This saves me tons of time. So... What you are about to see here (will follow in a few minutes) was absolutely invisible to the naked eye apart from those ghostly spots.
17 September:
Slow day
After having discovered and rounded off the processing which I wrote about yesterday nothing really special happened. A slow day. The weather forecasts however are improving. That sounds good but there is a considerable gap between what the satellites see and computers calculate at one side and harsh reality on the other side. Just don't hold your breath.
There is a strange thing going on in the streets of Rovaniemi. Or better yet... a lack of things going on. Activity of mini vans of safari companies and those kinds of things. Anthony pointed it out and then I realized that I hadn't seen that. No buzzing. And just a handful of clients. My inbound flight last monday was almost half empty in a small Embraer 
190 and a quick check on Flightradar24 revealed that on many flights there were these smaller planes. So... what is going on? Are people waiting for the exact moment of the equinox for optimum effect of the solar wind on our atmosphere? That has happened before. In that case the city has to brace for impact but it doesn't really feel that way. Is it what Putin is doing near the Finnish border that keeps people away?
The evening and night produced far more clouds than forecasted and even direct satellite images didn't match what we saw, there is of course a delay in that. So I had a real bad time trying to make anything of it and this is the only one that is only to illustrate the situation.
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18 September:
Even slower so a lost day
I was at breakfast with no appetite and ate half of my normal load. Back in my room I continued my sleep until 12 o'clock when I started processing the shots of last night. Horrible clouds, worst I've ever had to process as you can see in yesterday's entry. By the way: yesterday evening we encountered a 🫎Moose🫎 on our way through the wilderness😃.
Went for a walk on a route that would take me half an hour to the city center hoping to gain some energy. But I didn't get any further than some shopping and then Anthony called from the front door of my apartment. I'd give him a call when I'd be close to home and so I did and he arrived just after me. We discussed the situation of clients throughout the cities safari companies and the lights and that was the highlight of this day. No clients tonight... and that makes the puzzle complete because the sky would be (almost) clear and the equinox is nearing (Monday 21st, 18:19 UTC) which normally would cause people banging the doors for an Aurora Tour. And the sky is clear so I may take a walk to the Ounasjoki, the river that enters the city from the West with an unobstructed view to the North. But I'm not desperate so I keep in contact with Anthony who is practically glued to the sky.
To be continued...
Back from the river. Anthony apped me with a photo that launched me into my gear and on the street. In my pace a 15 minute walk which proved very rewarding. The Aurora was well visible though she didn't reach the intensity to activate the colour receptors in my retina so it kept to a grey haze but well defined and visible. The camera however showed a clear green arc. I decided to do a single camera timelapse. The view is good but limited so two cameras would be pointless. As I was doing that two Greek ladies joined me later followed by two Japanese ladies. We got to talk and that made them interested in joining our safari to Kätkävaara tomorrow. The river was like a mirror and a fog ended this story. A special occurrence as the solar wind had a northern directed magnetic field which in theory prevents the Aurora from showing... The two images are a first quick result and the graph of the magnetic orientation of the solar wind.
The timelapse of this event is only 14 seconds but quite nice as also upcoming fog is in it.
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19 September:
The app that says nothing yet showed what happened
3445 photos last night. Nice light in the distance. Weak later on the evening. Not yet sure if a full processed timelapse is worth the effort.
Update:
Things are quite dynamic at the moment. I usually write mij blog the next day so today's blog is written the 20th. But sometimes things mess up due to logistics, for that see the 20th.
So... at the 19th there were three clients for the Aurora tour. The sky should be good for them but for me it was just good and the forecasts, particular for clouds was not so bad. The solarwind parameters were just all but good. Now that isn't written in rocks so on the road i just kept my eyes on the sky, you never know. At the third stop we head south so we really have to leave the car to get a good view to the north and right as I got out I saw the lights. We stayed there for a while and I took the opportunity to shoot a short timelapse (which will take a while to get publishable). There a typical Anthony vs Donald conversation took place:
Me: "They (the lights) are small but quite dense".
Anthony: "Yes like your brain".
Me: "that is correct, like a computer chip, small but large capacity. Contrary to your brain which is large to get tot that capacity, like old chips".
Anthony then dug his own grave...: "yes, well... you are old".
Me (though a day later): "yes but I am younger than you🤓😎".
Once we arrived on our destination and had climbed the hill there was light on the horizon which shouldn't be there according to apps. The timelapse that I started there will probably not be built to publish. The Aurora was quite static but I still have to walk thru all those files, who knows what pops up.
Update: yes the timelapse was still worth the effort as it shows what most people get to see:
The timelapse of this event.
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20 September:
Two blogs at a time
Message during the day: "Moose safari at the start of the evening, be ready at 17:00.". That requires some other preparations than usual which take priority over writing yesterdays entry so that's why the text changes more often than normal.. Over all I feel more in control. I had to find my swing here and that bothered me, still does actually... Global and national awareness took its toll on me as well as some developments here in Rovaniemi and some private things which resulted in me just being here physically. That doesn't mean that I won't write my blog but it will be just a bit less for now. The aim is to publish some shots of last night before pickup at 17:00.
So far for the pickup and consequently the Moose Safari. Logistics sometimes do opposite things and today was such a sometime. Prepared, packed and ready at the front door time passed. Also no call from Anthony that he was on his way which was curious. Inquiry revealed what went on and as that is the companies business I obviously won't write about it. So here I am... for the second time this journey writing on the day about the day. No problem, that leaves me time to spend on the Timelapse's and learning a few more Finnish words. Let's see what this evening brings.
About the Stackplot: this is the magnetogram showing the reaction of the Earths magnetic field on the solar wind. At Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen) someone must have bumped into the magnetometers table. By the way... this bunch of flatliners does not mean there is no Aurora. But it won't be spectacular either.
Update: I have added the first timelapse from the 18th. The link is there under the photo. All Timelapse's will appear under the Images tab -> Timelapse's.
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21 September:
Software fight
If you use complicated software just a few times a year you don't build any routine in its use. That is what happened to me today. Both Photoshop and PTGui gave me a hard time figuring out how to perform certain tasks. In Photoshop that led to processing a bunch of files by hand as the automation just wouldn't do what it was supposed to do. In PTGui I'm not exactly sure what was going on, or better, is going on. That application is what you could absolutely call a nerds dream. The amount of parameters is about infinite and the manual needs... well, a manual... BUT i'v done it before so I'll find my way again!🤨 SISU! as the Finnish would say.
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22 September:
Autumn equinox
Tonight at 18:20 UTC (20:20 CET DST and 21:20 EET DST) the sun will be exactly over the equator on its way to the Capricorn circle. That means that the Earths pole to pole axis is exactly 'upright' or perpendicular to the direction of the solar wind. As it happens that will now also go for the Earths magnetic north pole (which isn't exactly opposite to the magnetic south pole). The magnetic north pole is located very close to the geographical north pole at this moment. The reason for this explanation is the main reason for my being here. Well, that and the moon being completely irrelevant for three consecutive weeks. The lights, when appearing, will be more dynamic due to the perpendicularity on the planets magnetic axis.
And as I am writing this my computer is converting 3204 photos for a timelapse of the 19th. I have tackled part of yesterdays problems and as I had to start over I also do a new conversion for higher quality.
We have bookings for the tour for the next three days😃. To be continued...
And continue I will🙂.
I found some problematic images in the timelapse train and dealt with them. It is now on my Youtube channel. I have added the link to the page here on the website at the end of the entry of the 19th.
Tonight a good enough sky is on the program of our weather gods. Not crystal clear but then again... it's Kätkävaara...
So... again to be continued...
Back from Kätkävaara... 💥🤯🫨🤩😍
This evenings story is built on experienced decision making that I couldn't have done without all the 154 days of watching the behavior. At the moment of writing this addition I am still processing last nights results so when that is done I can publish the images and comment further.
Processed enough for now. This evening is an Ex Aequo first place inn my track record without any doubt. There are now three different appearances in my collection with an extreme occurrence: 14 march 2018, 29 september 2024 and now 22 september 2025.
The evening started off with a question of the clients: "Do you feel lucky tonight?". As I don't sell bull shit and being dead honest I told them that the parameters weren't looking to good but that I wasn't pessimistic and occurrences have happened with worse data.
First stop, shot by hand just to see if there is a colour(shift) in the sky. It was so minimal that it didn't show on my camera and only did so in the computer.
Second stop: the thin purple/pink-ish lining and the dark lateral rift froze my heart. This colored pin told me that there was an energy building up. But how long would that take? Driving to the next stop could be fatal... waiting was a gamble as well as the green was very soft. I decided to wait and guide Topi didn't hesitate to make the client picture. After all this might be just it and the parameters weren't impressive at all. Well that was a good idea as the light was coming to an impressive level already. Then it stabilized and even got a bit weaker so that is when we decided to move on.
While driving south and keeping eyes on the sky right side behind us we stopped at a less usual place as the sky had gained energy and was lighting up the landscape.
The end result of the night came down to a parasol reaching to a full circle, the end was beyond the horizon on all sides. Now... all photos of the Northern Lights are deceiving except for som very rare occasions so I will show you here what it really looked like and what a camera makes of it. That latter in two versions as I had totally no reference point with regards to the colours. So I made two versions. That shows you that I can't be to far off and at the same time that I can't be correct...
So 3 times the same photo...
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23 September:
No vacation
Processing the photos from last night was quite a challenge. Not difficult but very hard to choose from which to deliver first and use for initial publication. So that basically took me the whole day. Yes... this is work. Not a vacation like everybody thinks. My definition of a vacation is lying dead on a beach and vingers plugged into the sun to recharge.But that doesn't mean that this is no fun. This is best comparable to a retreat, shoot-sleep-process-shopping-sleep-shoot etc. with somewhere in between food and drinks. The amount of hours of experience in processing the aurora is almost infinite by now but the trick is to get all the details out and maintain a realistic image matching the circumstances of the moment of capture.
So... we had a full mini van with 7 clients, driver/guide Topi and me. Apart from entertaining the clients a bit with what was to be expected it was a night that showed them what they came for: a well performed show from Lady Aurora. The best part being at the start of the evening so we took the time for the stops. A good thing as what we get during the drive might be all we get. And so it was once we got to our destination the light were still there but quite static.
The images on my website in their respective albums will be added to in the near future. It takes a lot of time which is limited while here in Rovaniemi.
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24 September:
Inspirational
Sometimes life is full of newbies, dilemmas and surprises. The lights are definitely different and I am trying out different paths in processing to get smooth transitions in the more subtle coulours and structures. New techniques giving me reasons to investigate if I have to reprocess earlier photos. But also the cameras that i use now are way way better than the one I started this adventure with.
Lady Aurora was playing Hard To Get tonight. She was far away and playing hide and seek behind the few clouds that were in the northern sky. The rest of it was reasonable clear and improving. The stops on our way gave no reason to pause the trip and I contacted Anthony who has a few days off about what to do: climbing the hill or stay in the field. The cloud formation really gave us a hard time to decide. It ended up with Topi taking the clients to the field and me going up the hill to assess the sky from a higher point. No significant difference so I descended the rough rocky slope. The lower part is good to walk with some rocks but the upper part is extremely rough with only boulders of 10-50 centimeters on average. No point in taking the clients up and risk ankles for nothing.
I could produce only one photo that has any nice structure and colour in it but for the clients a dream come true with a little treat when we went back to the car. From behind an ugly messy cloud formation suddenly a bright shining lit up the sky. The Aurora herself wasn't visible but the light was bright and outlining the clouds rim.
I am often asked how I ended up here and how my passion started. Tonight my age came into the questions by someone who wants to travel more. On my reply that I started this when I was 50 and that now I am 63 he reacted with "that is inspirational". I've never ever thought of my quest for the Aurora in this term... but thinking about it I guess it can be inspirational. It is never too late to start a new chapter in your life. Every journey or even a voyage starts with the first step. Embark on your next adventure...
25 September:
Moose safari
Today a Moose Safari is added to the program. I much more like to call it the Wildlife Safari. Though the moose is Europe's largest mammal there is so much more fauna in Lapland. On this trip (so not this safari) I've already seen mountain hares, foxes, and a moose. But they are swift animals and we are driving relatively fast. So pickup time now moved to 16:10 and I got the back seat for my own giving me sight in three directions and space to handle my equipment. My bag was extra heavy as the Aurora tour was planned as well and I therefor took almost all that is with me along. Moose, Aurora and astro. The latter one being a Skytracker Pro from iOptron to counter rotate my camera to the Earths rotation in the hope to get a nice image of a part of our MilkyWay Galaxy.
The Moose Safari brought us in the rough Lapland wilderness and made us a sort of humanshake instead of a milkshake. The moose have no fear for the car and are bad sighted but when the door opens to get a shot at them you have to totally shut up. They have a hearing that belongs to the best of all animals if not the best. And they fear humans like nothing else so a human whisper at over 500 meters sets them off.
Half way home one client and me changed cars to get on the Aurora tour. A young woman from Puerto Rico came with us and started with sharing Fazer chocolate. New hint for clients: bring Fazer chocolate😋 and we will summon Lady Aurora🤓😎! The climb up the hill seemed in vain at first as the Aurora kept to herself and far in the distance. Dull but what can you do. Eh... drink hot chocolate and warm😋 or cremate🤪 a sausage, depending on your technique. As nothing seemed to happen I was like "ok... forget it (I actually used a stronger term) and broke down my setup and switched to astro for the galaxy. Those photos need extensive processing so they will appear on the astro section later next month. Ofcourse that was the signal for The Lady to wake up and start het performance. As my tripod was taken for astronomical I had to shoot from the hand, not perfect but surely acceptable.
Not my best panorama but shot out of my hand in 3 shots... I don't complain.
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26 September:
Yesterdays galaxy shot
This was a slow day of processing the shots of the 25th. I particularly like the one with the solo moose which looks like an oil painting. I still have that old dream of selling my images and this one definitely qualifies for a luxury print.
The photos that I took of the galaxy are not very good for stacking. The process went well but the Skytracker Pro was not very good aligned so tracking could have been much better. The reason for this bad alignment is that it points upward for 66 degrees which is about the limit and looking through the finder scope is very limited also because of that steep angle. Add to that a very clear sky which makes it harder to find Polaris as there are so many visible stars and Polaris is far from being the brightest.
Another complicating factor is that the aurora reflects in the humid air leaving a significant green hue which influences the colours of the galaxy and didn't add to the quality to say the least.
No safaris today so a slow night as well. Anthony didn't report anything more than some thin pale far away green on which I gave up and turned in early to catch up with my lack of sleep.
Part of our galaxy in black&white.
27 September:
Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future so today will be a present.
Having made a final product of the galaxy (see yesterday) I have been searching for the 18th trip here in March 2026. The dates that come into consideration will be in the period of 8-22 March as the moon will then be favourable around the march Equinox.
So... time to open the present. Let's see what today has in store for me.
Well... I hardly ended writing so far when a friend of mine brought to my attention that he has this collection of Zeiss slides about the early Apollo Space Program and he was looking for a good home for them. They probably are direct reproductions of the original NASA slides which contain images of Gemini flights and who knows what more. Quite some present indeed...
The rest of the day I took my daily walk and went into reading about the sun spot group classifications to learn more about them and what to look for in order to get more grip on their aurora causing qualifications.
The night was kind of interesting as the client group was quite large. And because of the night starting off with a crystal clear sky. We saw some start of an aurora glow and made 3 stops underway. That was the best part of the evening and delivered useable pictures. By the time we arrived at our destination the fog came over us and never left us. I was only just able to get a panoramic shot of the lights when the curtain closed. On our way back on the last hill top in the darkness we rose just enough above the mist get a last glimpse and photo and that was it...
28 September:
Shining a light on Lightroom, discipline is the name.
One of the women at the office of the safari company was very interested in the way I make my images. So last night she came along for the recording and this morning she came by for the processing. 2 hours later and dazzling with information she had an idea of what proper processing of very difficult contrasts looks like. And how to organize your images in such a way that you can retrieve them in no time. The main thing, a huge thing, is maintaining discipline in your approach of your files and let Lightroom be the spider in your imaging web.
I have not much to add to this for this day. There were no tours for the afternoon nor for the evening. Tourist activities are still very low and that makes us wonder what is going on. Also the sun is sort of dead. There was a CME at 08:34 UTC though. It originated from sun spot group 4232 (fairly good chance of hitting our planet) but wasn't really impressive though still measured as an M6.4. Add 2,5 days to it and the night from Tuesday 30-09 on Wednesday 01-10 could become interesting.
On my way home from food shopping this gorgeous last sunlight lit the few remaining clouds leaving a ready to eat cotton candy in the sky.
Addition 13:00 UTC: I made a mistake with the sunspot number. It was the 4232 but it is not in the right position.
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29 September:
Rings, sunspots and flashgun. Oh... and lights like a dream!
No pictures from yesterday so an easy start. I went to the Revontulli shoppingcenter to have a look if our rings had already arrived from an upgrade. They are silver friendship rings (silver, gold and design/manufacturing all Finnish) with gold plated accents and that gold plated part had suffered from daily wearing (we did look for white and yellow gold but😱😵💫😫). But now they are even better looking than when they were new a year ago😃. They depict the Aurora. Yes yes I know... inscriptions missing, nothing bad just a story on its own. The other ring is a shovel with gold the way it is digged up here in the north of Lapland but upside down it depicts perfectly the main arc of the Aurora at Kätkävaara.
The rest of the day I've been browsing stuff no one is interested in and I finally came to investigate the possibilities of my 'new' flashgun. I have it for quite a while but as I rarely use it anymore I never came to really look at its features. And oh boy, with the camera that I now use it is absolutely amazing what it can do.
And while writing this reports of the suns activity pour in. Spot groups 4232 and 4230 are getting more and more active and have gained a class level From Beta to Beta-Gamma. I'll spare you the details about that but as 4232 and 4233 are now half way facing our planet these two groups, specifically 4232, are worth keeping an eye on. Now this
could become a sort of a problem. They need 3-4 more days to reach the perfect position and I have only 6 more nights left. I hope that spot group 4230 gives us a good M-class flare as it is perfectly positioned right now.
And the word just spread that there is an Aurora tour tonight😀.
Checking the solar wind parameters as they are now, it looks good. But darkness is still 4 hours away...
The sky should be open enough for a visual encounter with the Aurora but I'm afraid that it won't be good enough for first class photos.
Pickup will be about an hour from now. The sky over Rovaniemi is about a good 7/8 closed and wind is considerable. The parameters of the solar wind are looking quite good. Though I'm not married to those numbers I do respect them because they have proven to be more right than wrong... but that being said... please do take them with a bigger size grain of salt.
Well... I left the salt where it was... I was anxious to get going so i was early out and also because in the last week pickups were quite earlyAlready at the first stop we got green clouds but of the ugly type that was of no use. We stopped at the second stop just minutes down the road at the transmission tower. Knowing that the red aviation lighting would ruin the photos, in this case they would probably be better there. And in that way we took every stop to make photos of the clients as the lights and darkness kept improving. But unfortunately so didn't the cloud cover. That however was forecasted to move away over the evening. Not. Forecasts are calculated quite frequently but in the time between issuing a calculated forecast and the next things can change and with south Laplandish weather that is more rule than exception. That led to just only small openings in the cloud cover above which we saw a huge display coming to life and lighting the field where we were standing.
That made me happy not to have gone up the hill where we very likely would not have been able to look thru the openings in the clouds.
On our way back we frequently stopped to assess the clouds and their obstructing the view. That gave us a few nice and even hilarious opportunities because at one point we all got back in the car, on the road and after some 200 meters Topi slammed the brakes again and we got out to see a big hole in the sky thru which the lights were looking awesome. That is what we do... on eye on the road and one in the sky.
Back at the transmission tower we were like... well not bad but not good enough so one more stop to go and we drove on. And then again... A huge wall of light appeared like new batteries were put into the magnetic field of the planet and the van had to work hard on full throttle racing to the parking that we had to use to stay safe, this is not a road to stop on. Once there we got the treat of the night. Almost no clouds and a violent corona display that just kept on going and going and making you feel smaller than an ant.
Don't forget to have a look at the daily image where already are more of this evening and more are on their way
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30 September:
A contemplation and last hope
Today's aurora and clouds were nothing less than a pathetic copy of last night. At least we saw two moose on our way back. The day went by quite uneventful and that created some space to think things over. Remarkable is that when I was in the Kota with Anthony this evening he came to the same conclusion and more undoubtedly will or should. Our common thought is that the world is under siege by a bunch of idiots that are incapable of anything. On top of that we don't recognize our countries anymore. What the fuck is happening...😪 (I'll spare you all the depressing and absurd thoughts that wander with this contemplation)
My studio apartment is a sort of cocoon. Time doesn't exist as it comes to a halt as it seems confined within these four walls. The SpaceTime continuum makes this to be my own TARDIS. Remember Dr. Who? Time And Relative Dimensions In Space: TARDIS. And yet it will come to an end sometime around June next year when it will be taken down as it is old and will be replaced by some modern soulless heap of concrete and glass. Guesthouse Borealis, my home away from home for more than ten years, goes south...😢
In 4 days this trip will be over, by that time I'll be roaming Helsinki airport on my way back home to Inge❤️ who supports me in all my travels, who by the way has her birthday today 🥳
Back to the parallel reality: Sunspot groups! Group 4236 is grabbing the attention as it has reached the status of Beta-Gamma-Delta and it is the Delta classification that draws al that attention. By tomorrow (the day of writing this) that group should face our planet and the Delta spots are the ones capable of producing the massive X-class flares or CME's. Now... IF it does that It'll take the ejected corona mass between 48 and 72 hours to reach our planet and be exactly in time for me to see what it will do in our atmosphere. So this will be the cliffhanger of the year...
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01 October:
Last hope for this trip and my shot of the year.
Today I took an (even) deep(er) dive into the solar wind statistics and phenomenon. That delivered some new insights and menu items here on the website. I have really enjoyed the last 12,5 years but cycle 24 was the smallest in many decades and 25 just marginally rose above it. The upcoming three cycles will benefit from the Gleissberg cycle which spans 80-100 years and significantly influences the solar cycle. I just hope to live that long which theoretically could be possible as 63+33=96.
I still have 3,5 days effectively left. Looking at the sun there are two objects that are interesting sunspot group 4236 and the coronal hole. 4236 still has a Beta-Gamma-Delta configuration. The Delta part in there is the interesting thing as it has the potential for strong CME's (Coronal Mass Ejection). If it does that it will take 2-3 days to reach Earth. Along with that the coronal hole is sending out a constant high velocity stream of particles our way. Both combined can potentially lead to jaw dropping Aurorae. So...🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
The evening started off well with the Aurora above the city and visible to the naked eye despite the street lighting. The image of the city with the Aurora above it is an extremity. A lot of processing goes into that in order to balance contrast in light and colours. Topi picked me up and we did a longer first stop. What happened was impossible to shoot as a sequence for a timelapse. Even with 1/2 second exposures the lights were different in each shot. The Aurora was violent dynamic and... did something that it sometimes does... its power was so intense that it increased the atmospheric pressure and all clouds vanished within seconds!😶🌫️😶😲🤩🥳
We stayed there for a while and then moved on to stop #3 where the sky is much darker. There a distant arc and pale overhead lights converged into one huge dominant arc that lit up the landscape. So that was worth staying there for some 15-20 minutes. At some point in time we just had to move on because the fire and food are part of the tour and the light slowly became less impressive. A good moment to travel while the Aurora may be regrouping for another assault.
20 minutes later... ascending the slope of the hill... The light came back on, the spot was excellent, Game On! A quick setup and my cameras were in synchronous timelapse mode. But as the light did their best so did the clouds that slowly but surely came in from the west. That ended the timelapse and I went on to the Kota and the sausages and hot chocodrink😋. There a sudden photo opportunity got me my image of this year. With still three months left I just do not think I can top the shot of the Kota with that light...
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02 October:
Meteorology
Not much to say about this day. I've been looking into the app 'Windy'. It's a very extended weather forecast app and I have the paid premium version. To me specifically the three separate maps of cloud layers are important and the associated Meteogram and Airgram that show the different altitudes and their cloud formations and dynamics by the hour. I have setup all our stops and chose the ICON-EU computing model which is quite new and yet widely spread. But it has a 7km grid and at the moment seems to be the most reliable.
What you see here in the Meteogram is the cloudy lower layer of roughly altitudes up to 2km and a main cloud deck at 1500m. I guess the ICON-EU model or its processing by Windy has a flaw if you compare the cloud diagram to the clouds's base level. That flaw is not there when I use the ECMWF model. At the stops I get a constant report of the cloud density. With my premium subscription the data has a refresh rate of only 1 hour.
Next you see the Airgram which tells me the wind speed and direction on the different altitudes so I get a picture of what the clouds are doing and the seeing quality of the atmosphere which I need for my astrophotography.
The evening didn't look well on both the Meteogram and Airgram but as the hill and a fiery display have proven their effect on the local cloud situation we do try to get something to show the clients, many of whom are there for only 1 day. And many of whom don't get more than this.
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03 October:
Finally Kätkävaara in daylight.
At the time I am writing this another day has progressed quite a bit. It is now the 4th 17:02. I had a busy day tomorrow (🤓🤪 time travel 😎) so a late blog entry.
Having processed and delivered the photos of the 2nd and written the blog entry of the 1st I did my shopping for food and some extra things to take home. Departure is nearing. Timing was perfect to get my equipment ready for the Moose Safari and while doing that the word came that there would be an Aurora Tour as well. Thus expanding my set for both gigs transforming my backpack into a considerable weight. The plan is like before: I switch cars/tours halfway back in Muurola, a small village at (for our tours) the last sign of civilization before heading into the wilderness.
Anthony picked me up and off we went. Now you have to understand the Moose rhythm with is that they hardly move during the day as they are preferably nocturnal creatures. That being said it is not impossible to encounter them in the late afternoon. They are not easy to spot as they blend in their surroundings like no other and they know how to freeze at their spot in order not to be seen. So probably they were more on a Human Safari watching us then we on a Moose Safari. A good thing is that Reindeer don't care.
At the regular snack/toilet break I took the opportunity to climb the hill where I have been spotting the Aurora for 12 1/2 years but this time (a first!) in daylight. Finally I got to see what that place really looks like and I shot a stock of 
photos (including panoramic) on the way up, at our viewing place and on the way down. Minnie that runs the place welcomed me with a present that she brought home from her home country Thailand. A very nice gesture. And Anthony came up with two cinnamon cookies, his first try to bake them and they were absolutely good😋.
The second part of the Moose Safari was in the twilight, Moose time... It was already quite dark when we finally encountered a mother and two kids from May at about 200 meters distance. You find them with a strong searchlight that reflects in their enormous eyes. Stay quiet because the Moose has probably the best hearing of all animals and they are scared shitless for humans. They can hear human whispering for over 500 meters. The last one that I spotted was a young one at the rim of the forest where the mother would be close in the first tree line. It was already dark so this was an extremely hard one to shoot.
After the switch to Topi for the Aurora Tour My camera's had to load a different set of settings, other lenses and other physical switches to be readied for a whole different form of photography. The sky wasn't very promising so all hope was concentrated on the mayhem called 'weather forecast'. It took quite some time for the clouds to open but once they did we had about 80% of the sky to look at. Not for very long, this was far from forecasts and nothing less than a present. But enough time to get a few good shots.
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04 October:
Parameter paralysis.
Today was the packing day. Breaking down my setup of chargers and packing my suitcases in a thought through way being Finavia proof. Morons. Finnair is great but the airport handling is less than bad, so nothing to tell really... I was planning to stay at home this night and get a good night sleep because of a long day tomorrow. But... Planning is also there to be altered. The weather forecast and solar wind parameters seemed fine and good enough to get out tonight. And as I have stated before... the weather forecast is reliable at the moment it is issued only. My 8(!) forecasting models started to disagree in the early evening and the sky fully closed at mid level. And I mean FULL. A solid cloud deck over South-Lapland took care of even not seeiing a star, not 1... And on top of that I found only some green clouds during some 5 minutes and that was it. So far for there parameters of the solar wind.
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05 October: Journey back home
Game over
Zewei, the new Chinese woman at the safari office, offered to take me to the airport. At 07:30 instead of 07:45 she was already there and 10 minutes later the Rovaniemi skyline vanished behind me. Rovaniemi is a boring city. Lots of restaurants, bars and safari companies but architecture is, apart from some new ultra sleek Finnish design, well... sort of a bunch of shoe boxes. There are a few small areas with typical Scandinavian wooden houses (like in Pipi Longstocking, just only white grey-ish) but that is a real minority. In short: it's a dump but I have chosen it to be my dump and over time it has become my second home town.
At Helsinki my Airbus A320 anchored at a non-Schengen gate. Again, just like 20 days ago. Finavia sucks big time. My autism kicked in and assaulted my brain with messages that this, again, wasn't what was supposed to happen. Consequence: I totally forgot the rest of my onboard breakfast and my durable drinking bottle in the seat pocket... Damn...
So now I'm sitting here with a sorry sort of chicken bun that costs a fortune and a heavenly cappuccino at Robbert's Coffee at Helsinki Vantaa Airport typing away the wait for my next, business class😃, flight that will take me to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
This beauty, a European Marvel, 6 year old Airbus A350-900 OH-LWO, will take me home on my 100th flight. I have logged almost all my flights, some of which from memory with less information than the other ones. Some of them Took me to the Unbelievable Shit of America, some to Japan. Some 8-10 of them in business class (have to sort that out🤔).
An hour delay due to traffic congestion above central Europe, specifically around Amsterdam. So... champagne during waiting. In plastic instead of glass which enables the crew to perform a quick departure in case a slot is earlier issued than expected,
Schiphol Airport was a mess. The aftermath of the delays caused the luggage claim area to congest big time. As I was traveling in business class my suitcases had priority and were amongst the very first on the belt. I left the crowd via an exit on the side which was completely free. People are hurd animals and they all wanted too go through one central exit so an insane crowd was building up there. Use your eyes... at 20:30 local time I was home after just over 20 !/2 days
This trip was good. 3 evenings had both clear skies and overwhelming Aurorae. The other 17 nights aren't lost. One gets what one is given and that upholds the magic. That is why I also publish lesser beautiful images, just because that is what most people get to see. Probably it is what you get to see, fantastic lights and a clear sky to fully appriciate them is not common, not common at all...
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