Armchair aurora watching

[DustBunnyFarmer]

I'm starting this discussion because I was in danger of hijacking the Icelandic volcano thread. I started using the Mila Icelandic webcams to watch the eruption at Holoraun (the Bardabunga webcams), but lately I've seen the aurora borealis quite a few times on the other webcams, particularly the Thingvellir webcam www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/thingvellir/, although the lights can be seen sometimes on the Hekla and Jokulsarlon ones.

Another OP posted a link to the Hotel Ranga aurora cam, which is here: www.hotelranga.is/northern-lights/northern-light-webcam/

I am posting a couple of pics below for comparison to get you started. The first is a lovely aurora shot at Thingvellir from September, then a more blurry one from last night and a normal dark evening shot.

If you can find any other lovely aurora cams please post links (and pics) below. Happy hunting!

This could get very addictive - I spent an evening watching the aurora on the Thingvellir webcam when I should have been working.

Glad to have sucked you in, Pearl. We have found some much higher resolution webcams in Lapland and Alaska since I wrote my OP. It's worth reading the last couple of pages & bookmarking the new ones.

Also, I'm not sure how we're going to amuse ourselves in the summer months. I'll start researching webcams in the southern hemisphere (aurora australis) shortly. There must be at least one functioning webcam in the antarctic.

There are several I've found Dust - but not sure if they are specifically for aurora purposes.

That is good news, Badger.

Lovely transition to nightfall at Abisko sky station today.

Also, as you can see above, the lights are off to a flying start.

Abisko looking beautiful at the moment! And a greeninsh tinge on the North Finland camera here. Just need the clouds to break up a bit.

I took another snap of Abisko, mainly because it shows up how much brighter the stars are when the moon has waned.

I just checked back off the back of Gloria's post and it is going bananas at the mo - almost white bright in the middle of the swathe of light.

Got all excited when I found this Australian link to a Aurora Australis web cam. Turns out it is the name of their Antarctic survey ship - great if you want to keep an eye out for sailors, not so good for the lights.

I like this one on Macquarie Island. Two absolutely enormous seals mid shot. But I digress....

Oh dear, I'm going to need a new (different thread) soon. I love the idea of the Torgersen Island Penguin cam. There are penguins in shot right now.

Anyhow, the main point is that there are plenty of Antarctic web cams. We have our aurora year covered.

Yay penguins to watch as well!
North Finland is off to an early start tonight.

I just spotted to northern Finland camera too. Abisko and Porjus very murky tonight.

North Finland is looking beautiful at the moment.

Lovely.

Yes - shame none of the tourists are out watching it, maybe no takers this week?

I think I read that the tourists usually arrive on a Monday and if they fly in, it's a 2 hour road trip to the cabins with a stop for supplies. So if there are any staying from today, perhaps they're recovering from the journey and might be out in the coming nights.

You could be right, Gloria. Glad someone else has done as much reading & thinking about this as me.

I have my holiday planned there already (in my head!) Perhaps I could offer to stay and clean their webcam lens which seems to have got a bit snow splattered!

Let's face it, Lapland (in all its varieties) is an absolute bust tonight. Even the North Finland camera is splurgy. Cleaning the snow off would be a public service, Gloria.

Feckin' autocorrect. I corrected s p l o d g y three times and it still fixed it to splurgy when I wasn't looking.

No northern lights tonight but I quite like the white out on the Porjus camera.

How have I managed to miss this thread (with helpful links)? And how on earth will I manage to do anything else with my time except Aurora watching? Brilliant; I can't wait to see a live spectacle from the comfort of my sofa!