Alaska Cruise - Could you see northern lights?

[wpeck]

Has anyone taken an Alaskan cruise in September 2024? Could you see the Northern Lights from the cruise ship?

 

[Djm_in_buffalo]

I did not take the cruise so cannot answer your question. However, I have seen the northern lights before. That was decades ago. It was awesome.

Over the last few months, we had the opportunity to see them. Could kind of, sort of see them with the unaided eye. On a scale of 1 to 10 for awesomeness, with 10 being most awesome, I’d put it at a 2 or 3. (Scientific, I know.) So, kind of a dud.

However, most anybody’s cell phone photos of that dud? Wow!! Completely unadulterated photos make it look awesome. The camera captures what the eye alone cannot.

Point to any/all: if advertising photos depict awesome photos of the northern lights, might want to do a little more research, as in real life and real time, you might not be able to actually perceive them in that way.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I cruised to Alaska in July. It did not get dark enough at night to see them. I have seen them several times in the last few months in CT.

 

[Meriweather]

We cruised in Sept and did not see them.
There was a speaker on the ship that talked about them and explained it.
And in her 25 Alaska cruises, she has never seen them.....just somewhere else.

It needs dark, clear and sun spots

 

[steve_rob]

While it is possible to see the Northern Lights from an Alaskan cruise, it's not very likely. First of all due to the late setting sun (or in some cases, not setting at all!) in summer, it will only have a chance of happening right at the very beginning and very ends of the cruise season.

Secondly you're probably too far south for it to be much more than a 1% chance. Most guides say to have a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights you need to be in Fairbanks or further north, while even towards the end of an Alaskan cruise (assuming it ends in Seward or Whittier) you're still about 400 miles south of Fairbanks as the crow flies.

 

[wpeck]

We cruised in Sept and did not see them.
There was a speaker on the ship that talked about them and explained it.
And in her 25 Alaska cruises, she has never seen them.....just somewhere else.

It needs dark, clear and sun spots

Thank you for your reply.

 

[wpeck]

While it is possible to see the Northern Lights from an Alaskan cruise, it's not very likely. First of all due to the late setting sun (or in some cases, not setting at all!) in summer, it will only have a chance of happening right at the very beginning and very ends of the cruise season.

Secondly you're probably too far south for it to be much more than a 1% chance. Most guides say to have a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights you need to be in Fairbanks or further north, while even towards the end of an Alaskan cruise (assuming it ends in Seward or Whittier) you're still about 400 miles south of Fairbanks as the crow flies.

Thanks for the information.

 

[happybaker]

We took a cruise in August 2007 and we did see the Nothern Lights.

 

[Uk145081]

Unfortunately not this year

 

[jimmymc]

Not usually, but it's possible. The lights vary from week to week with how far south they come.

If you can do a one-way cruise, Fairbanks is consistently in a strong band.

 

[pjacobi]

An Alaska cruise in the summer is a good place to look for the "midnight sun", or at least a soft glow from the sun just below the horizon.


-Paul

 

[ajgardner]

We did a land sea trip starting in Anchorage the first two weeks of September this year. No Northern Lighrs unfortunately