Aurora Borealis

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Next month I am going on a cruise to the arctic circle right at the top of Norway in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Northern lights. It very much depends on whether you get to see them depending on cloud covering. This is going to be somewhat different to the type of cruise I usually go on as it is likely to be much colder. I don't mind the cold so much but l am sorting out much warmer clothes than l would normally take with me. Jumpers, thermal socks, gloves, hats waterproofs, and boots not to mention a thick waterproof wind proof coat which will take up a lot of room. They are a very interesting phenomena usually only seen in the far north or far south of the earth nearer to the poles. They are caused by tiny particles coming from the suns solar winds then coming into into contact with the earths upper atmosphere & the magnetic fields push them in either a North or South direction. At times they can be seen in Scotland, Canada, Norway and inside the arctic circle. There are also the Southern lights called Aurora Australis which car be seen from New Zealand,Tasmania and the Antarctic. It was Galileo Galilei who gave them the name "aurora borealis" in 1619. They are named after the Roman Goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek God of the north wind, Boreas — the earliest suspected record of the northern lights is in a 30,000-year-old cave painting in France. The Chinese described them in 163 BC. Pretty amazing don't you think? Have you ever seen them?