Aurora borealis is active

A heads-up that the Aurora borealis (Northern Lights) started early this year, and we've been getting some very good shows for about 2 weeks now. If you're up late and the skies are clear, find a dark spot on the ship, and good luck!

How late do we have to be up to possibly see aurora borealis on inside passage cruise? Sailing north last week August.

Any time it's dark, the aurora is possible. In late August, the sky is still light until about 11:00 pm at Skagway. I use the University of Alaska Fairbanks' aurora forecast to see if staying up is worthwhile - http://auroraforecast.gi.alaska.edu/ - but there are several aurora-forecast apps, too.

we have been getting them in Juneau (faint, but still visible) and Whitehorse for a while now.

midnight and 2am are the times to check.

bands will start out as a very faint, grey "whisp"- you can tell them apart from clouds, and will slowly change colors to green. its a bit early for purple and red.

from last week in Whitehorse

This incredible photo combining the Windy Arm fire and the aurora was one of several shot by Jason Gendron on Monday might and posted on an aurora group I run on Facebook. They've already been shared over 1,200 times.

Do you think they would be active in September 22 or later.On the Bliss that week and that's on my bucket list.

Do you think they would be active in September 22 or later.On the Bliss that week and that's on my bucket list.

The full moon is on September 24th, and that washes out all but extremely strong auroras.

We are going to be in Fairbanks on the 3rd and 4th and the website shows a 4 for the strength of the borealis.

I am really hoping it stays that way, most other nights around those dates are only at a two. I will have the motel wake us up if need be. Hoping to see some beautiful colors at some point during our 14 nights.

they can appear and vanish very quickly. I spent most of the winter in Whitehorse (one of my main clients is based there, so I'm there 2 weeks a month), and I only recall 2 times this winter that we had a REALLY good show. It takes not only the forecast, but also the ability to see them. Clouds, precipitation, and as rvorcruise mentions, the moon. I've lived in Juneau since 2009, and I can only recall maybe 3 or 4 times a year we get a REALLY good show. They've been happening more and more in August / May to be honest.

And the photo I took was using my LG G6 phone at marker 1560km-ish on the Alaska Highway, west of Whitehorse. Had to get far out due to the light pollution.

I cruised Alaska in the first week of September in 2015 and leaving Juneau we saw an amazing show of the Northern Lights. Originally we were advised we would have the best odds of seeing them between 12-2am, but they showed up around 10pm. So if you are sailing it's best to just peak out and check because if the skies are clear and it's a possible aurora night you never know! I was so happy we saw it!

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We had a very good chance for activity (according to Univ of Alaska app) on Sept 8-10. So we got up at 1am on 9/8, 9/9 - ship's lights, too bright, didn't see anything anyway. On the last night of our cruise - Sept 10 - our capt makes an announcement that the chances were VERY good and at 3am he was going to turn OFF the lights :-) Then he gave us photography best practices :-) We set the alarm, get up at 3 and go to balcony and BOOM there they were. I stayed on balcony, husband went up on deck to take more photos. Gorgeous. We were in the Gulf of Alaska (as we were disembarking in Seward).