Aike’s Advent-tures in Finland

All is calm, all is bright

Bundled up, we bundled out of the van and followed our guide into the Narnia-like frozen forest. Apart from the crunch of snow under our feet, the forest was silent, wrapped in a blanket of snow that acted like a sound-absorber. It was a new moon night, so in theory it should’ve been pitch black, but the sky was so bright, we didn’t even need a torch.

We followed some reindeer tracks, noting where they’d disturbed the snow in search of shoots and lichen, entered a small clearing, and expectantly stared up at the sky. The geomagnetic readings on Leevi’s aurora watch app were strong; however, the Northern Lights were nowhere to be seen. We passed the time spotting constellations: the plough, Orion’s belt, North Star, Jupiter…in fact the whole of the Milky Way twinkled like diamonds. It was at this point that we noticed a few white shadows moving slowly across the sky. Whipping out our phone cameras (it was so cold, you could only manage two minutes before hand and phone went numb) we realised the whole sky was awash with green and purple, the white wisps displaying bright green through our lens. There was so much solar activity, this was the reason for the bright sky on a no-moon night.