The Northern Lights effect on me.
Before talking about the Northern Lights. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very confident person. It is not presumption, but simply a strong sense of awareness that, perhaps also thanks to my work as an entrepreneur, I have had to build over the years to always be able to face the challenges and work and personal difficulties that have arisen in front of me.
And also try to be a reference in this sense for those close to me, whether they were family members or collaborators.
Yet I assure you that even an “me” as important as that of myself felt small, very small, in the face of the most impressive of natural phenomena that can be witnessed on this wonderful planet of ours: the Northern Lights.
An endless surprise
As much as we can read, study and look at photos, seeing the Northern Lights is really one of those experiences that never finds us ready.
It is one of the most beautiful shows you can see, it takes your breath away, it makes us cry with joy (and I assure you I’m not exaggerating, I saw Scandinavian men in their fifties cry with emotion next to me as if they were children).
To make us lie in the snow for hours with our noses upwards and with accelerated heartbeats.
There is also a feeling of helplessness with respect to so much beauty and what Nature is able to offer, so much so that we remain in respectful silence or at most give space to tears.
Tears that, inevitably, will wet our face, while we are excited to observe the ballet of lights and colors that occurs in the sky.
It’s all true!
I remember the feeling of disbelief of those moments, and that unconscious tendency to look around, as if wanting to look somewhere for a hypothetical mega lighting technician capable of orchestrating this immense show behind us.
And instead it’s all natural.
And it is something that our brain, always determined to explain everything according to our means and our knowledge, is not immediately able to accept.
But even this incredulity is an essential part of the show …
Everything originates from the Sun, about 149 million kilometers from the Earth, from which a solar wind starts which, charged with protons and electrons, heads towards the Earth.
Upon reaching the earth’s ionosphere, or the atmosphere between 100 and 500 km, these particles, interacting with it, excite the atoms present, thus giving life to the Polar Aurora.
The phenomenon has greater intensity in the areas around the poles and depending on the hemisphere in which it is observed.
The Polar Aurora is also called Northern Lighsts if it is observed in the northern hemisphere or Aurora Australis if it is observed in the southern hemisphere.
A bit of “science”
The most intense auroras occur when a magnetic storm is in progress caused by strong Sun activity.
In this case they will also be visible in areas far from the poles. The Northern Lights can be seen above the Arctic Circle. Certain latitudes are needed and near the poles it is easier.
Always ask the locals for directions, but be aware that they will tell you that the dawn is unpredictable and that the weather changes constantly.
Some tips: – Look for a really dark and hidden place to enjoy it, preferably with a wide open view at 360 degrees. – Dress really warm, and try to stay out as long as possible when the sky is clear. If you see the stars, the possibilities are more concrete.
I like to think, looking at the album of the photographs taken in those nights at the Arctic Circle, to be able to give you that you will see even a shred of that suggestion that that experience has traced in my heart as a landscape photography enthusiast. .
An experience to which I owe a lot, not so much and not just for what it made me “see”, but for how it made me “feel”.
In fact, I had the privilege, and it really happens to few, of feeling like a child again at the age of fifty. A feeling that I once again experienced while I was in the Maldives.
And for this I will always be grateful to that sky, to those stars, to that light …
