Northern Lights on Alaskan Cruise

[Ingabinga]

We are taking an Alaskan cruise with NCL in late September. When we traveled with Hurtigruten once in early October in Norway, you could set your stateroom intercom to on, and at night the Captain would come on if the Northern Lights were seen from the bridge. I was wondering if there is any type of setup with NCL. I realize that seeing the Northern Lights might not happen, but it was nice to go to sleep and know that you would be alerted if the lights appeared.

[julig22]

As far as I know, NCL does not have an intercom option - announcements are to all rooms or none, no ability to select.  I wish they did, because they tend to not make announcements to the rooms, so you either have to switch the TV to the shipcam channel or open your door to hear announcements.

 

More than the northern lights, I wish they would announce when there are whales alongside the ship as well!

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Ingabinga said:

We are taking an Alaskan cruise with NCL in late September. When we traveled with Hurtigruten once in early October in Norway, you could set your stateroom intercom to on, and at night the Captain would come on if the Northern Lights were seen from the bridge. I was wondering if there is any type of setup with NCL. I realize that seeing the Northern Lights might not happen, but it was nice to go to sleep and know that you would be alerted if the lights appeared.

Go to a Northern Lights tacking site and see if there is anything a few days before you sail. Some ships were treated to a show two weeks ago when the light dipped well south over the Alaskan coast. 

[YVRteacher]

I was just on the NCL Jewel to Alaska.  As part of his 12:00pm announcements one day, the captain said that evening should be a good opportunity to view the Northern Lights.  I stayed up as late as I could and all I saw was darkness.  Sigh.  
NCL does the safety announcements into cabins and all other announcements are just broadcast into public areas.

[casofilia]

@Ingabinga

 

Talk nicely to the GM and/or the CD and ask if Guest Services could be persuaded to take names of people who would like to be called if the Northern Lights were observed during the night.

 

Or get VERY friendly with the night person on the Guest Services desk and offer an incentive if (s)he would call you if they were visible.

 

I think you will find that hotels in Alaska set up the call system.

 

Mike 

[don't-use-real-name]

Another option source - seek out one of the deck officers whose function is

meteorology aka weather person for information.

Potential of clear sky forecast -

 

And it all depends on where your ship is relative to a dark sky -

In port with bright lights not so much -

At sea better - but stay away from bright deck rigging lighting -

Best highest deck forward near the bridge as the bridge likes it dark

for navigation purposes -

Note being closer to the north pole - the Anchorage location as opposed

to the southeast panhandle region maybe better

Non-cruising - Fairbanks and most anywhere in the interior should be optimum

 

Another fleeting siting - I saw the International Space Station fly-over my place tonight.

Moving so fast it was visible for only for a few minutes.

 

Amazing on a dark clear sky night all the stars that are to be seen !

 

Enjoy ! 

[Sailing12Away]

Sometimes you need to set a longer exposure on your camera in order to see them. We sailed on the Encore last September (last week of August, first week of September) and were able to see them by luck from our aft balcony. With the naked eye I was just taking a pretty photo of the moon, when I looked at my phone I saw the lights (it was in 'night' mode to try and capture stars). Pleasant surprise indeed. The next morning a lot of folks were talking about it as they became visible with the naked eye much later on (2am) - we saw them around midnight before heading to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the naked eye or no extended exposure:

 

[Turtles06]

10 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

Another fleeting siting - I saw the International Space Station fly-over my place tonight.

Moving so fast it was visible for only for a few minutes.

 

The International Space Station can often be seen (depending on the weather of course), in the hours just before dawn or after sunset.   While sometimes it's visible just for a few minutes, it's often longer.  NASA has a web site (see link below) where you can sign up to get alerts when the ISS will be visible at the location you put in.  The alert will tell you the time it's visible and for how long, and the directions from which and to which it will be traveling.  We love to look up at the sky when the ISS is flying over, and think about the humans who are up there . ..   And just one bit of trivia:  the ISS is the third brightest object in the sky (so it's easily spotted if you know when and where to look).

 

https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

[abugarcia1]

12 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Sometimes you need to set a longer exposure on your camera in order to see them. We sailed on the Encore last September (last week of August, first week of September) and were able to see them by luck from our aft balcony. With the naked eye I was just taking a pretty photo of the moon, when I looked at my phone I saw the lights (it was in 'night' mode to try and capture stars). Pleasant surprise indeed. The next morning a lot of folks were talking about it as they became visible with the naked eye much later on (2am) - we saw them around midnight before heading to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the naked eye or no extended exposure:

 

great pictures. thanks for sharing

[abugarcia1]

We just got off the Encore to Alaska. We heard that they ships navigator was looking and they would let us know. We never heard. We also found an App that will alert based on location and time for Northern Lights. Only downside is getting consistent service on board.

[julig22]

Yes, the camera picks up colors you won't see.  Had that happen in Fairbanks

Aurora Forecast | Geophysical Institute (alaska.edu)

 

[RGEDad]

Another Aurora Forecast site I found is:

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast

Has a very interesting display that shows the visibility across time and place

 

And an app for Apple iPhones

There are a bunch of Apps for iPhone in the App Store.

Some Free, Some not

 

 

[Ingabinga]

WOW! More response than I thought there would be. Thank you all. Now there are many options that I didn't think about. Happy sails!

[kdmbluerzr]

Following.  

[julig22]

59 minutes ago, kdmbluerzr said:

Following.  

Just a fyi - if you go to the beginning of a post you can click on the box that says follow.  That way you will get notifications and the others that are following a post won't get a notification just because you are following a post.