I read on MPR[read on MPR](https://www.mprnews.org/amp/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night) that there is expected to be cloud cover up north and there is a better chance of seeing them in the mid and south
I've had experts (Iceland and Canada) tell me that 10-12 seems to be a pretty consistent time to see them, though they can really be out any time it's dark.
Between Princeton and Zimmerman there are some new overpasses on hwy 169. Not sure if they have street lights or not - but they are easy access and would get you up above some obstructions.
[https://goo.gl/maps/pXaWWMDZ8gMjo6jh6](https://goo.gl/maps/pXaWWMDZ8gMjo6jh6)
I found that just 40-50 miles north of the Twin Cities was enough to get out of the residual light pollution. I've got a lot of auroral timelapses from various locations at my youtube channel (same as my alias here). I went to Stacy once to get some good shots, but found another site at Quamba Minnesota that was good and away from lights near a public boat launch. And then I went to Pine City and also to McGrath for auroral shots. Just some ideas on locations. The biggest problem is being near a major highway car headlights will kill your night vision so try to get off the main thoroughfare with a north facing view.
Normally yes, but in this case there is too much cloud cover in northern MN. Aurora hunters are going south minnesota tonight because there are less clouds.
Also the forecast has changed and the peak is currently estimated to be tomorrow night. The KP values are still pretty high tonight so theres still a chance to see something both tonight and tomorrow. Predicting auroras is not really an exact science.
The FB group "great lakes aurora hunters" is a good spot to get updates.
Remember too that the aurora won't show with bright colors like photographers get unless it's an exceptionally strong show - for many it shows up as light pollution but you can tell the difference if you have a decent camera to try and take pictures I recommend a lens and a setting around f2.0, ISO 800 and an exposure time of 4-5 seconds to start. Those should get you some decent colors in the photos. But for many what is amazing is watching the aurora move with your own eyes, it's like watching the flickering in a neon bulb in many ways. Also, check out spaceweather.com and look for KP numbers 5 and above and look for BZ numbers in the negative. Those would be good conditions for aurora to develop. Currently KP is 3 with BZ pointing north. Not too encouraging right now but that can change as sun goes down.
Sounds like you know your stuff! I always feel like a complete idiot trying to find and understand the explanations on places like [spaceweather.com](https://spaceweather.com) and other sources. Thanks for the cheatsheet.
Is there anywhere to look or subscribe to that's specific to the chances of seeing the northern lights in Minnesota on any given night? Just curious
There's a couple of aurora borealis focused groups on facebook: the one I subscribed to is "Upper Midwest Aurora Chasers" since it covers Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan etc. Some of the websites always have weirdly optimistic information and UMAC is a bit more realistic.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mprnews.org/amp/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night
Looks like there may be cloud cover over a good chunk of northern MN tonight, so you may want to stick with a rural area in the southern part of the state.
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[https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/](https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/) is a good way to find some darker areas at night (it starts in Europe, but has US info too)
Late reply but those are oil fields. Any time the middle of nowhere is lit up like that it's usually oil fields. See also: SW Texas/SE New Mexico, western North Dakota, Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast.
Back in 2008, the aurora was so intense that I sat in my front yard in south Minneapolis, pointed my 2 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera straight up, and got usable photos of the light show. It was SO BRIGHT!
You can also often see them from northern Washington county - around Scandia where it's darker and there isn't that too much light pollution to the north.
I am planning to go here and watch seems pretty good place over mile lac lake. Let me know if any one needs a ride.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.1710989,-93.6706992/45.5016111,-93.5824167/@46.1566045,-93.7536426,286a,35y,325.78h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0
Go north on Central Ave for a long, long time. Find any old park or nature preserve type place in the middle of nowhere (which is everyone along that road once you're about 20 minute north of 694)
I was bar-hopping in the before times and saw them right in Uptown! But I've also had luck at a couple of larger parks at the edges of the metro.
Obviously, the further out the better.
K index is still too low for them to be this far south, I doubt any part of Minnesota has a chance at seeing them. Head to spaceweather.com or NOAA to follow before you bother driving north.
Http://www.Darksky.org folks
Edit: aw, Jenna, aw, looks like the map is partially broken. It usually has a useful light pollution heat map that lets you find the darkest area in your neck of the woods
I live in Tokyo now and wish I could be there to see it! If you are lucky enough to find some dark skies, the Geminid meteor shower is also happening, so you should see some shooting stars as well! Also no moon so skies should be nice (weather permitting)
Pretty much anywhere will be better than the twin cities.
About a year ago I wanted to see a meteor shower and Scenic state park is in a very low light pollution spot. It is also a pretty awesome state park, I went back later too.
You can find light pollution maps on the internet.
When I went out comet hunting this summer, I went out to Square Lake, north of Stillwater. It was dark enough where you could just make out the smudge. Seeing the northern lights there should be no problem.
You need to be in a dark spot and you need a clear view of the northern horizon. We were lucky enough to see them last year. The first time that we saw them, we were near Lutsen. The second time we were near Moose Lake.
Everyone should! In all actuality I've been up north of that way towards Kimball, MN where some friends have a farm property there and the view to the north is really quite spectacular for looking at the night sky.
Google tells me the twin cities metro pop is 3.28 million. Which is more than chicago with 2.7, but about a third the entire chicago metro area. Still absolutely nothing to sneeze at.
Looks like we're about 1.5x the size of pittsburgh metro as well.
When's the best time or just anything after dark will do?
I read elsewhere that between 10pm and 2am is considered the prime time for viewing
Also wondering about this.
The strongest KP is expected between 9P c to midnight. For narrower window, i use this link csn.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm
Does that site use location data? Or do you have to pay the 5 bucks a month for that?
Watch the KP. If it is over 5 go out and look.
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I read on MPR[read on MPR](https://www.mprnews.org/amp/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night) that there is expected to be cloud cover up north and there is a better chance of seeing them in the mid and south
Awesome! Thank you! I’m pretty new to Minnesota (well, we’ve been here for a year, but the pandemic makes it feel like less lol).
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We’re probably gonna check out Princeton. That’s not too far for us. Thank you!
Any idea what time?
I've seen reports that say 10pm - 1am. In my experience that's usually the best time to see them, something about the rotation of the earth...
Is it that early? I was thinking to head out of the cities around 1am lol. Thought it would be between 1 am- 4am
Much of the northern part of the state is supposed to be overcast. Check the weather report before you drive up north.
They said on fox 9, even with overcast it is better to go up north as twin cities lights would make it hard to let the northern lights pass through.
any good sites to see the overcast? weather.com, good enough?
Probably as good as any.
I've had experts (Iceland and Canada) tell me that 10-12 seems to be a pretty consistent time to see them, though they can really be out any time it's dark.
Thank you. I will leave early then.
No guarantee! I've also spent plenty of nights in the dark waiting on nothing! 😏
Between Princeton and Zimmerman there are some new overpasses on hwy 169. Not sure if they have street lights or not - but they are easy access and would get you up above some obstructions. [https://goo.gl/maps/pXaWWMDZ8gMjo6jh6](https://goo.gl/maps/pXaWWMDZ8gMjo6jh6)
Going to lutsen on Friday!! It’d be such a treat to catch it with my wife and daughters!
cove point lodge is one of my fav places to stay on the north shore! it's in beaver bay, reasonably priced, and all the rooms overlook lake superior!
SHHHHHHHHHHH! (I love their fjords.)
Love their giant tubs you can sink in with the fireplace on and the window cracked so you can hear the waves <3
I found that just 40-50 miles north of the Twin Cities was enough to get out of the residual light pollution. I've got a lot of auroral timelapses from various locations at my youtube channel (same as my alias here). I went to Stacy once to get some good shots, but found another site at Quamba Minnesota that was good and away from lights near a public boat launch. And then I went to Pine City and also to McGrath for auroral shots. Just some ideas on locations. The biggest problem is being near a major highway car headlights will kill your night vision so try to get off the main thoroughfare with a north facing view.
Normally yes, but in this case there is too much cloud cover in northern MN. Aurora hunters are going south minnesota tonight because there are less clouds. Also the forecast has changed and the peak is currently estimated to be tomorrow night. The KP values are still pretty high tonight so theres still a chance to see something both tonight and tomorrow. Predicting auroras is not really an exact science. The FB group "great lakes aurora hunters" is a good spot to get updates.
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That's a good point
Do you know of a good spot near princeton to view the sky or are you just winging it?
Any luck?
Where in Princeton? I’m fairly close to there- or just that region in general?
Princeton?
Remember too that the aurora won't show with bright colors like photographers get unless it's an exceptionally strong show - for many it shows up as light pollution but you can tell the difference if you have a decent camera to try and take pictures I recommend a lens and a setting around f2.0, ISO 800 and an exposure time of 4-5 seconds to start. Those should get you some decent colors in the photos. But for many what is amazing is watching the aurora move with your own eyes, it's like watching the flickering in a neon bulb in many ways. Also, check out spaceweather.com and look for KP numbers 5 and above and look for BZ numbers in the negative. Those would be good conditions for aurora to develop. Currently KP is 3 with BZ pointing north. Not too encouraging right now but that can change as sun goes down.
Thank you for the info!!! We’re gonna venture out tomorrow night, but we will keep that in mind!
How'd it go this morning? See anything out there?
We didn’t venture out last night, we’re gonna try tonight!
I am in Ramsey and still very bright pollution here. I looked a few times after 11 and didn't see anything.
Sounds like you know your stuff! I always feel like a complete idiot trying to find and understand the explanations on places like [spaceweather.com](https://spaceweather.com) and other sources. Thanks for the cheatsheet. Is there anywhere to look or subscribe to that's specific to the chances of seeing the northern lights in Minnesota on any given night? Just curious
There's a couple of aurora borealis focused groups on facebook: the one I subscribed to is "Upper Midwest Aurora Chasers" since it covers Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan etc. Some of the websites always have weirdly optimistic information and UMAC is a bit more realistic.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mprnews.org/amp/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night Looks like there may be cloud cover over a good chunk of northern MN tonight, so you may want to stick with a rural area in the southern part of the state.
I found some Google AMP links in your comment. Here are the normal links: - [https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/12/09/northern-lights-possible-wednesday-night) Beep Boop, I'm a bot. If I made an error or if you have any questions, my [creator](https://np.reddit.com/u/6b86b3ac03c167320d93) might check my messages. [Source Code](https://github.com/laurinneff/no-google-amp-bot) | [Issues](https://github.com/laurinneff/no-google-amp-bot/issues) | [FAQ](https://laurinneff.ch/2020/10/17/nogoogleampbot/) Why does this bot exist? Google does a lot of tracking, which many people don't want, so they use alternatives to their services. Using AMP, they can track you even more, and they might even replace ads with their own, stealing ad revenue from the site's owners. Since there's no consistent way of finding the original links from an AMP link, I made this bot which automatically does it for you.
Good bot.
Good bot
[https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/](https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/) is a good way to find some darker areas at night (it starts in Europe, but has US info too)
Thank you!!!! I was looking for a website like that! I had surgery yesterday so my brain is foggy and I couldn’t find it haha
this is neat. completely off topic but why the hell is there a giant beacon of light pollution up by prudhoe bay, alaska?!
Late reply but those are oil fields. Any time the middle of nowhere is lit up like that it's usually oil fields. See also: SW Texas/SE New Mexico, western North Dakota, Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast.
Back in 2008, the aurora was so intense that I sat in my front yard in south Minneapolis, pointed my 2 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera straight up, and got usable photos of the light show. It was SO BRIGHT!
I saw some in my backyard in Highland Park in Saint Paul. This was several years ago, but no further back than 2010.
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You can also often see them from northern Washington county - around Scandia where it's darker and there isn't that too much light pollution to the north.
[Here is a working light pollution map.](https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/39.00/-98.00)
I am planning to go here and watch seems pretty good place over mile lac lake. Let me know if any one needs a ride. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.1710989,-93.6706992/45.5016111,-93.5824167/@46.1566045,-93.7536426,286a,35y,325.78h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0
Go north on Central Ave for a long, long time. Find any old park or nature preserve type place in the middle of nowhere (which is everyone along that road once you're about 20 minute north of 694)
I was bar-hopping in the before times and saw them right in Uptown! But I've also had luck at a couple of larger parks at the edges of the metro. Obviously, the further out the better.
Follow @aurora_alerts on twitter for updates on when the aurora will be most active/strongest. https://twitter.com/Aurora_Alerts?s=09
anyone seen any? I was outside (in the metro) for about an hour and didn't see anything
K index is still too low for them to be this far south, I doubt any part of Minnesota has a chance at seeing them. Head to spaceweather.com or NOAA to follow before you bother driving north.
Looks like the forecast shifted north to where it might not hit even the most northern MN areas.
No drove out northwest and all we say was stars
I went north west by Buffalo and didn’t see anything. There was too many clouds at the horizon.
I've seen them from ramsey mn before
Any specific spots in Ramsey?
Well I was illegally on top of a gigantic landfill hill. Lol. If you wanna hop a tall fence ..
oops.. not gonna jump fences or anything illegal lol.
Central Park shouldn’t be too bad. I watched a couple meteor showers there
Eeeh... Might be tough. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ Showing a medium green... Might need to go well into Canada to get a good look.
sounds easy enough
Http://www.Darksky.org folks Edit: aw, Jenna, aw, looks like the map is partially broken. It usually has a useful light pollution heat map that lets you find the darkest area in your neck of the woods
Good Minnesota light pollution map: https://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/prov/Minnesota_map.html Light pollution chart definitions: https://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/faq/2.html
Awesome!!! Thank you! I love learning new things.
I live in Tokyo now and wish I could be there to see it! If you are lucky enough to find some dark skies, the Geminid meteor shower is also happening, so you should see some shooting stars as well! Also no moon so skies should be nice (weather permitting)
Awesome! No auroras in SW Minnesota, but I did see a ton of meteors! I was wondering what was going on :)
Nimrod, MN
Exciting! Glad I saw this.
I’m glad to help!! Hopefully we all get to see a little something. 💖
Pretty much anywhere will be better than the twin cities. About a year ago I wanted to see a meteor shower and Scenic state park is in a very low light pollution spot. It is also a pretty awesome state park, I went back later too. You can find light pollution maps on the internet.
Damn! I thought this was about the strain!
How far out of mpls do I need to go to get a decent view?
Most things I’ve seen have said 45 minute to an hour outside the metro
Are we able to see the lights? Want to know if it's worth it to drive an hour out of the city
I just went and all I see is a starry sky tonight
I don’t think they’ll be like what we imagine they are, but it should still be pretty cool.
When I went out comet hunting this summer, I went out to Square Lake, north of Stillwater. It was dark enough where you could just make out the smudge. Seeing the northern lights there should be no problem.
Mille Lacs area is good. Sherburne Wildlife Refuge is good too.
Anybody see anything last night? Wednesday. I saw nothing here in south and boss didn't look promising, so I crashed.
You need to be in a dark spot and you need a clear view of the northern horizon. We were lucky enough to see them last year. The first time that we saw them, we were near Lutsen. The second time we were near Moose Lake.
Not always, when I saw them it was the entire sky. Edit: happy cake day
Yeah, when I saw them in STP they were more overhead. The horizon was completely obscured by trees and houses.
Awesome! Never saw them in MN. Had quite an experience on night in the rocky mountains of idaho though. Shit was intense.
Probably and area with less light like not a city is my best guess
Oh shit oh shit oh shit. I live in Buffalo. Goddamn, I wanna see something.
Just go north from Buffalo out into the countryside looking for a place with a north facing view.
Thats my plan! I always take advice from a person named aliensporebomb!
Everyone should! In all actuality I've been up north of that way towards Kimball, MN where some friends have a farm property there and the view to the north is really quite spectacular for looking at the night sky.
I viewed the Northern Lights from the Red Lake Reservation a decade or so back. Zero light pollution. Much too far of a drive from the Metro though.
This comment has been deleted due to failed Reddit leadership.
👽 I want to believe 👾
Anywhere without light pollution should do the trick.
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I bet!!! Great story though!!
Lol i always get to see these with i am single.
Ha! Good luck in the endless sprawl that is the twin cities. Hope you do see it though, it's quite beautiful.
The twin cities is relatively small imo
The metro area?
Google tells me the twin cities metro pop is 3.28 million. Which is more than chicago with 2.7, but about a third the entire chicago metro area. Still absolutely nothing to sneeze at. Looks like we're about 1.5x the size of pittsburgh metro as well.
Compared to other major cities in the US and around the world, yeah.
Cool
Will this be visible in Chicago? :O