OnTheJourney

More solar storms as we approach the maximum, then it will start to decrease again. There has been auroral activity as far down as Rochester NY of late.

My sister-in-law is currently on RCL's Greenland cruise (roundtrip out of Bayonne). They had 4 northern lights sightings during 4 consecutive evenings. Amazing! Map shows the auroral activity going right through lower Greenland just now. Solar maximum during this current cycle is probably next year. Someone on the live thread just posted this picture. There are lots more, but this one's really good. More than I saw in '19.

Wait...a 30-minute time change?

What camera did you use for those? Like I said, some people travel far and wide on special NL cruises and expeditions and never even see them once. I told my daughter about your sightings. She's a PhD in astrophysics and follows all this pretty closely. Right now we're in what's known as solar cycle 25 which is quite active - more than expected. We could be approaching a major peak by end of '23. Every 11 years or so, the sun's magnetic field gets tangled up like a ball of tightly wound rubber bands until it eventually snaps and completely flips — turning the north pole into the south pole and vice versa.This period of increased activity, known as solar maximum, is also a potentially perilous time for Earth, which gets bombarded by solar storms (hence more NL activity) that can disrupt communications, damage power infrastructure, harm some living creatures (including astronauts) and send satellites plummeting toward the planet. It's astounding to think what's actually happening. Solar wind speed is currently 327 km / second, equal to about 731,000 mph. So below is why you're seeing them tonight. You're in the perfect location. Enjoy it....could be a once-in-a-lifetime group of sightings.

So tonight again !? You guys are so unbelievably lucky. This pic is a terrific sighting. Is most of that what the camera or what the eye saw? Outstanding picture.

This is why I'm so reminded of our NL trip of 4 years ago after following this thread..I remember being amazed at all the really small coastal communities we'd pass along the way. Viking Sky docked in Alta, Norway

LOL....oh well, something to do on a sea day. Tropical storm here in the East today. Windy and rainy all day - probably tomorrow also.

Cool! So they had a sort of sampler platter, or did you order all that separately? I've greatly enjoyed your pics along the way! Definitely makes me want to go. I love the northern scenery. My sister-in-law is on this sailing and said she greatly enjoyed Greenland. So looking at all the pics, etc. takes me right back to our Norway trip back in '19. Oh no! What FB site are you referring to? I'm sure Heidi was terribly upset. No, we had a few real good sightings of the NL on our Viking cruise back in '19. I had posted a few pics of them on this thread a few pages back. So where did the Jewel go before this Greenland cruise? I thought maybe you were on this sailing.

Hi Bunzini! Remember our brief time together in Bermuda with Heidi and her dog Buddy? Gosh, seems like so long ago already.

Even so. Some pax go on specific northern lights journeys and never have a sighting. I know...happened on our Viking cruise.

So you had sightings on two consecutive nights? You guys are extremely fortunate.

That berg looks WAY too close!!! 2/3 of them are underwater. Water color looks lovely. Sure hope they bring this cruise back to Bayonne at some point - looks like one to put on my list. No interest in doing it out of Boston.

Great pictures. Looks beautiful up there. About what time were the NL sighted? Are there shore excursions offered in these Greenland ports? Wondering about Nuuk being that you referred to shuttle service. LOL on seeing that artisan cheese plate on the menu. On a recent RCL cruise, one night it showed up during dinner (didn't order it) and then it kept coming every day. Not sure why.

WOW! Is that how it looked without the camera as well? Fantastic that you got to see it! What an added bonus to the trip!

My goof on the iphone app. The Aurora app I mentioned also shows Kp. The other app that was recommended, which is really cool, is Celestron Sky Portal.

Here's an interesting site... https://aurorareach.com/places/gl/nuuk

Not unusual for much sharper colors caught by the camera unless there is really good solar activity, and then the eyes also can see the brighter colors. We did Viking's Northern Lights cruise back in '19 and great onboard lecturers. One of the things they talked about is proper camera settings and so forth, as well as suggestions on downloading some good apps for mobile phone. I remember one was for long exposure pics and the other is to check the Kp index - indicating how strong a sighting is likely to be and where it is relative to one's location. I got some pretty good shots up in Norway using just my iphone. My regular 35mm and video cam were worthless. Didn't have a tripod for the phone and so a few pics are a bit shaky. Still, I didn't think I'd get as much as I did. Funny...they made an announcement during dinner and so everyone hustled out of the dining room. Probably one of the ONLY things that would take people away from their food (!) except for an emergency, and we had that too...a big one actually. Never got to finish the cruise. My eyes did not see this real bright green color. Staff also said they'd make announcements on the room tvs and so we were told to leave them on, but we found the extra light made it hard to sleep. I don't believe there were any late night sightings though. Our best sightings were right on the ship - better (for us anyway) than the (long and COLD) evening program that they took us out on. Best of luck seeing them this evening! Here's the app that I used. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/my-aurora-forecast-alerts/id1073082439 There are probably others.

Hard to believe, and I'm not even on the cruise! Carpe diem, or, the Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire) version..."carpe dentum" lol

LOL....nothing like matching the music, etc. to the destination 😆 Probably won't see any of this stuff in the MDR... https://www.expeditions.com/expedition-stories/stories/a-world-of-flavor-7-traditional-foods-of-greenland/#:~:text=Suaasat,%2C and meat%2C often seal.

I've never done it, but have seen people that surely don't hesitate to. Not that I recall. I'll ask DW. She has a far better memory for that sort of thing. Thanks for continuing to share everything!

Yep...they find ways to 'recycle' food from previous meals. How are the (dinner) portion sizes?

The sail out of NYC does look truly lovely. You had great weather for it! Great live thread....keep it coming!

Oh my! Been there and done that, not having to be winched off because of illness but due to intended evacuation of all the passengers. As it turned out, only 450 or so were evac'd by helicopter. Hope the person will be ok. BTW...happened to notice your fall trips on the Jewel. Now that so many of these northern itineraries are going out of Boston or Quebec, doing B2B (so as to return to Cape Liberty) looks like a nice option, except that for me 3 weeks starts to get a bit too long. This (Greenland) cruise is already moved to roundtrip Boston for next year.

Never visited this Air, Sea, and Space museum....looks interesting.

Following this thread with interest! I'd like to do this cruise sometime and would gladly like to see Manhattan added instead of Halifax (been there many times). Interesting on the D+ pins! We never got any! 🙁 Enjoy the day in NY!