The easiest way to see the Northern Lights is from a cruise ship. (Photo courtesy: Alan , [+]
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship you’ll know that it can be as much about the buffet and shocking lectures as it is about the landscapes you’re passing through.
But go out on the deck at sunset and you’ll see things you’ve never seen before. Mesmerizing crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays before sunset. The pink belt of Venus and Earth’s powerful shadow swallowing the sky. Perhaps the Sun’s elusive “green glow” also disappears beneath the flattest horizon you’ve ever seen.
Even before it gets dark.
Why go stargazing on a cruise ship?
“The best reason to go stargazing on a cruise ship is that you’re away from light pollution,” said Neil Sanders, an outreach astronomer and founder of Go Stargazing, a UK-based organization that promotes stargazing events, in an interview. gives. “Even in the darkest places on land there is always some light pollution on the horizon.”
He also points out that if you go from the Northern Hemisphere to the South, a whole new world of stars opens up before you. “Go to the Southern Hemisphere south of the equator and you’ll start to see the Milky Way and the Magellanic Cloud in areas of the sky you can’t see from home,” he said.
Out on the deck on a clear night it is difficult to pick out the odd stars and constellations. “You can escape normal life by going out on deck at night and being in the middle of the ocean, with just you and thousands of stars you can see,” Sanders said. Even watching the moon rise over the ocean, or the crescent moon setting over the ocean, can be a very special experience.
Laser-Guided Sky Tours
Sanders was so pleased with the views of the night sky at sea that he recently pitched the idea of organized stargazing sessions to Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, which will soon feature him and selected astronomers on 26 cruises around the UK (Liverpool, Newcastle, Dover). will host. , Southampton and Portsmouth) to Norway, Iceland, the Azores and the Canary Islands as close as the Arctic Circle by 2024.
The itinerary includes exploring the northern lights at Christmas in December, the natural wonders and wildlife of the Azores and Madeira in April.
Go Stargazing is also running a prize draw for two Northern Lights cruises in March. “This is a great time because solar activity is increasing, making 2024 a good time for a Northern Lights cruise,” Sanders said.
All cruises will include presentations about stargazing and laser-guided tours of the above stars and constellations. Some guests will be able to see meteor showers, moonrise and the northern lights (the season has just begun in the Northern Hemisphere), while 1,338 lucky guests on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ Bolette ship will be the last people on the planet to see a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
It is now more difficult than ever to see the stars in the ocean.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
