Aurora Labs Blog

See the “Bethlehem Star” in the Night Sky

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 20 December 2020

The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs on 21 December 2020.

In astronomy, a conjunction means the “meeting” of two planets in the night sky. Jupiter and Saturn, the biggest planets in our Solar System, can meet as well, but when they do, their conjunction is a “great” one – hence the term Great Conjunction!

Jupiter and Saturn are one of the brightest objects in the night sky. They look just like two very bright stars – but don’t mistake them for stars! They are planets, so they don’t create light themselves just like the stars (like our Sun does for example). They are “lit” only because of the reflection of the sunlight. Which is the same reason why the Moon shines in the night sky!

The Great Conjunction of 2020

In their perpetual movement around the sun, it happens sometimes that planets “meet”. The word “meet” is quoted because the planets don’t actually meet in reality. It is just how we see things from here on Earth. In fact, the two planets are aligned in such a way in their orbits, that from Earth, we see them as if they came into contact with eachother. In reality though, they’re some million kilometres apart!

And why is this conjunction “great” you may ask? Well, this is because Saturn and Jupiter, due to their size, they are already bright even when they’re “apart”. When two bright lights touch each other, they are seen like only one light, even brighter! The same happens with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

When does it happen?

Jupiter and Saturn are already close in the night sky since quite some time now. But on December 21 (thus tomorrow!), the two planets will be so close (less than 0.1 degrees) that they will look like an elongated, very bright star. So, stargazers, get ready for a Christmas treat!

Why is the Great Conjunction so special this year?

The Great Conjunction occurs regularly, roughly every 20 years. But why is it so special this year?

In function on the position of the “meeting” with respect to the position of the Sun, the conjunction may be more or less bright. If this meeting place is too close to the Sun, the brightness diminishes. This year, the position is ideal for a very bright Great Conjunction!

Another thing to take into account is how close the two planets will appear to be. Not every 20 years the planets have such an apparent closeness! In fact, to get an idea of how rare this occurs, know that last time Jupiter and Saturn appeared so close, was in year 1226! It actually happened in 1623, but it was rather close to the Sun, which made it actually less visible.

Where and how to look?

You need to look in the night sky about 1 hour after sunset, almost anywhere on Earth, even in light polluted areas! In the Northern hemisphere look towards south-west. As for the Southern hemisphere, look towards the west. Needless to say that you will need a clear sky!

It will be impossible to miss such an impressive sight so, don’t worry, it will not be difficult to spot it!

“Christmas Star”

As the Great Conjunction this year happens very close to Christmas, it is also called the “Christmas Star“, or the “Bethlehem Star“. To go even further, some astronomers believe that the Star of Bethlehem which led the Three Wise Men to the place where Jesus was born, might have actually been a Great Conjunction! But there are other theories that suggest that a supernova might have occurred that time. Or, was it indeed a divine miracle?

Tags Night sky, Stargazing, Telescope, Universe

Aurora Labs Vadsø

Vadsø Sky Lights

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 18 November 2020

Northern Lights in the Arctic Night Sky

During autumn, a typical day here in Vadsø starts with the Sun rising in the morning, just like anywhere else on Earth. But, after just a few hours of daylight, during which beautiful clouds color the heavens in white and greyish shades… it’s time for the Sun to set around noon, in its typical red and yellow sights, making room for the polar blue evenings.

And a short while after that… the amazing night show starts! Northern Lights turn the sky green, and, along with the stars and the Milky Way, they create an outworldly atmosphere, and you can easily imagine you’re… well… somewhere out of this world! Yes, it’s that beautiful!

Just look at my new video and picture yourself here, in the Arctic wilderness, with your head turned up towards the heavens, and just start dreaming!

Tags Night sky, sky, Vadsø

History Vadsø

The First North Polar Expeditions (Part I)

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 16 October 2020

The 'Norge' airship in flight, in 1926

The Norge Expedition

It was the year 1926. The year when, for the first time, the Arctic Ocean was to be crossed by the first transpolar flight! Continue to read our article and discover the fascinating story of the first explorers to have reached the North Pole! And, best of all, see with your own eyes a veritable piece of this adventure if you decide to visit Vadsø with me!

Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, well-known at that time for having crossed the Northwest Passage and for having successfully reached the South Pole a few years earlier, still had a dream – to conquer the great North Pole!

He did not want to give up his lifetime dream so, in May 1925, he had a first attempt to reach the pole from Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, by using two seaplanes N-24 and N-25. After a first crash landing, and then due to lack of fuel, Amundsen needed to wait a bit more in order to accomplish his dream.

Without hesitation, he started planning his second attempt for reaching the North Pole. This time he decided to use an airship instead of a plane, the main reason being that if a problem occurred in an engine, a plane needed an emergency landing, while an airship could have its engine repaired while still flying! He telegraphed Umberto Nobile – an Italian aeronautical engineer – in which he requested to meet him in Norway in order to propose an airship trip through the Great Arctic! Nobile’s N-1 semi-rigid airship was thus to be modified for cold conditions. And because the Aero Club of Norway was to be the formal owner of the airship, the N-1 was rebaptized ‘Norge‘ (‘Norge’ means ‘Norway’ in Norwegian).

Concerning the financing of the expedition, Lincoln Ellsworth, an American wealthy adventurer, contributed 100.000 dollars and everything over was to be covered by the Aero Club of Norway. The costs included, among others, the buying of the airship, its modifications and also the erection of mooring masts in strategic places where Norge was to pass from Italy to its final point.

Vadsø was chosen as one of this strategic places, thus our small town played an important role in Amundsen’s Arctic adventure! It was the last mainland port for Norge. The airship mast that was constructed here, still stands even today, and its imposing view can be admired on the Vadsøya island from the mainland or during a pleasant walk through the island’s Culture Park.

March 29, 1926 was the day when Norge‘s polar story began, during a ceremony in Ciampino, Italy, when the dirigeable was handed over to the Aero Club of Norway. Lots of people were present, including Amundsen, Nobile and Ellsworth, other expedition participants and even Benito Mussolini – the Italian prime minister – himself!

The flight towards the Great North was initially scheduled to depart on April 6, but, due to strong winds, was delayed to April 10. At 9:25, the magic started! The airship flew to England, where it made its first landing in the Pulham Airship Station, at 15:20.

Bad weather incurred another delay, and Amundsen needed to wait one more day before departing England. On April 12 at 11:45, Norge began its flight towards Oslo, reaching Norway a few hours later.

On April 15 at 01:00, the airship left Oslo and flew to Leningrad in Russia, during an adventurous 17-hour flight through dense fog. In Russia, the Norge needed some maintenance work done and the addition of safety rubber boats, should an emergency occur. The airship remained thus in the shed for more than a week. This time was extended even more because of the weather and also because the airship mast in Ny-Ålesund had not yet been finished, also due to harsh weather conditions in the Arctic at the time.

After a long wait, on May 5 at 09:40, Norge finally left Russia and was directed towards Vadsø in Northern Norway! Here in Vadsø, the mast that was used almost 100 years ago for Norge, is still standing today as a historical monument, and you can see it during a nice, relaxing walk on the town’s island of Vadsøya!

The airship mast on the Vadsøya island, in 2018. The town of Vadsø is located on the mainland, and is visible in the background of this picture.

If you’d like to see the Norge airship moored to the mast in Vadsø on May 6 1926, you can click here to open the Digitalmuseum.no website.

The expedition continued from Vadsø, crossed the Barents Sea and reached Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard on May 7 at 06:15.

A few days later, on May 11 at 09:55, the airship left Svalbard to finally reach the North Pole on May 12 at 01:25. This moment, the Norwegian, Italian and American flags were dropped from the dirigible onto the ice.

From here, because of the extreme cold, icy formations grew on the airship’s propellers, and even if pieces would break and fly off, Norge did manage to reach Alaska on May 14, on the other side of the Arctic Ocean, where it was landed.

There are a few claims to have arrived at the North Pole in 1908, 1909 and in 1926 (only a few days before the Norge), but all of these claims are disputed for being inaccurate or even fraudulent. The crew of Norge is thus considered to be the first verified explorers team to have reached the North Pole!

And speaking about Norge‘s crew, it included 16 men, among which there was Roald Amundsen as the expedition leader, Umberto Nobile as the airship’s designer and pilot, and Lincoln Ellsworth. Nobile even brought his little dog Titina, as the expedition’s mascot!

Stay tuned on the Aurora Labs blog to discover the story of a second expedition to the North Pole which passed through Vadsø two years later, but which contains an unexpected turnaround…

Tags History, Vadsø

Nature Science Stargazing

Twilight Occurrence

Civil twilight in Vadsø

In a previous article we saw what is twilight and what are the main types of twilight. As a reminder, twilight is the period of the day when a certain point on Earth is illuminated indirectly, by sunlight scattering, when the Sun is below the horizon, but not more than 18°, thus its rays are still visible, indirectly, for an observer located at that certain point.

Now, we’re going to look at how twilight occurs on Earth, when it occurs and… how it doesn’t occur at all in certain places!

Standard twilight occurrence

A standard twilight occurrence was described in our previous article:

During the course of a day, at sunrise, the Sun appears in the sky from the right (East) and, during the whole daytime, it shines its light directly onto the place on Earth where the observer is located. In the evening, at sunset, the Sun will again reach 0° on the left side (West) and it will slowly disappear under the horizon. This moment the evening twilight starts. Due to earth’s rotation, the Sun will continue to descend more and more under the horizon. But before our star reaches 18° under the horizon, there will still be distinguishable light from the Sun for the observer. When the Sun reaches 18°, dusk occurs, and the observer will not distinguish any indirect sunlight anymore and the astronomical night starts.

Because of Earth’s rotation, the Sun continues its trip and, very early in the morning, before it rises, it will reach again 18° under the horizon. At this moment, dawn occurs, and twilight starts again – this time we’re talking about the morning twilight. As time passes more, the Sun will ascend more, until it reaches again 0° and it rises the next day.

Twilight occurs thus during both periods of the day when the Sun is between 0° and 18° under the horizon.

This scenario is true for people living on Earth between approximately 50° North or South of the Equator at any time of the year. This is also valid for higher latitudes, but not around the summer solstice, when the Sun does not descend more than 18° under the horizon during the “night”, and thus there’s no real astronomical night between dusk and dawn.

Continuous twilight between sunset and sunrise

As written in the previous paragraph, above latitudes of approximately 50°N/S, around the date of the summer solstice, the Sun does not descend lower than 18° under the horizon, which means that, even if the Sun is under the horizon, its rays can still be seen, indirectly, during the whole night, which translates itself into a continuous twilight during the whole “night” hours.

In function of the latitude, there can be a continuous astronomical twilight, a continuous nautical twilight, or a continuous civil twilight between sunset and sunrise. This actually occurs in very popular and accessible places around the world, such as:

Continuous astronomical twilight: many European countries, such as northern UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and many other in the Northern Hemisphere or the Falkland Islands in the Southern Hemisphere;
Continuous nautical twilight: a great part of Russia and Canada, northern Denmark in the Northern Hemisphere or Ushuaia in Argentina in the Southern Hemisphere;
Continuous civil twilight: more northern parts of Russia (such as Sankt Petersburg), Northern Norway, Northern Sweden, Northern Finland.

White nights

A continuous civil twilight between sunset and sunrise is called a white night. The term white night also applies if a certain place does enter nautical twilight also, but if the Sun does not descend lower than 7°.

The white night constitutes a popular symbol for Sankt Petersburg in Russia, where, around the summer solstice, the Sun never goes lower than 7° under the horizon for several days.

A continuous nautical or astronomical twilight does not mean a white night occurs.

No astronomical day between morning and evening twilight

Within the two Polar Circles – Arctic and Antarctic – in wintertime, Polar Night occurs. The polar night means that the Sun does not rise above the horizon at all during 24 hours. But it may approach the horizon, above 18°, thus its rays are seen indirectly and twilight occurs during the “daytime” hours.

Again, in function of the actual latitude, during the normal “daytime” hours, there may be a continuous civil, nautical or astronomical twilight. Vadsø experiences a continuous civil twilight between approximately November 25 and January 17.

Church of Arctic Sea in Vadsø, at noon, during the Polar Night’s daytime civil twilight

No twilight at all

In polar regions, around the summer solstice, the Sun is up in the sky 24 hours a day, a period known as the Polar Day. The Sun that never sets for more than 24 hours is called the Midnight Sun, and it never disappears under the horizon for several days in a row. Higher the latitude, longer the period the Midnight Sun occurs.

As the Sun never goes under the horizon, these places experience no twilight at all during all these days.

This condition occurs here in Vadsø during the Midnight Sun period, and lasts more than 2 months, between approximately May 16 and July 26 each year.

Tags Science, sky, Stargazing, Sun, Universe

Aurora Labs Nature Vadsø

Autumn in Vadsø

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 7 October 2020

Vadsø's city centre in autumn

A new season has made its way up here in Finnmark, on the coast of the Varanger fjord: autumn. Even though the Arctic autumn means stronger winds, colder temperatures or a shorter daylight period due to the approach of the Polar Night which will begin next month, this season brings also joy through its multitude of colours!

The Vadsø Municipality has put on its autumn clothes also, as the rest of Northern Norway did: the town is now multicoloured in shades of yellow, orange and red, the surrounding tundra is reddish, and the civil twilight is intensely blue, period followed by dark nights with green skies due to the Northern Lights!

Watch the video below for an idea of what autumn means for the inhabitants of Vadsø! (There’s also the French version of this video on the Aurora Labs Youtube channel!)

Would you like to experience this magical season and feel on your own skin the vastness of the coloured autumn landscapes of Vadsø and Varanger? Then take a look on the Aurora Labs website to see how to arrive and what is there to see and do in this beautiful region!

Tags Aurora Labs, Holiday, Vadsø