Author: Sergiu

I accomplished one of my dreams - to be a Northern Lights hunter in the Arctic. In fact, my love for this region of the world is so intense, that I decided to create here Aurora Labs, to be able to carry out my activities. The beauty of the landscapes of Vadsø, the people, its tranquility, they have all marked me for life, and what I'd like now, is to induce you, at least part of this love, thanks to my activities that are unique in the world. Check out my website and see what we can do together if you decide to visit Finnmark in Northern Norway with me (among others, you can experience the Northern Lights, even in summer!)

Legacy Activity: The Secrets of Weather

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 29 August 2025
No Comments on Legacy Activity: The Secrets of Weather

The Secrets of Weather - Weather Forecasting course

At Aurora Labs, my passion for science and nature runs deep. While I’ve streamlined my tour packages to offer a more focused experience for my guests, I believe that knowledge should always be accessible. This activity is no longer offered as part of Aurora Labs tours, but I am proud to share its description as a legacy of my educational offerings. This post serves as an archive for one of my most unique legacy activity: “The Secrets of Weather” meteorology course. I’m happy to keep the content here for anyone who wants to learn more about the fascinating world of weather forecasting.

The Secrets of Weather

Understand weather from scratch
Learn the basic weather concepts
Learn to interpret nature’s signs and to forecast the weather
Identify clouds and predict their evolution
Experiment weather at small scale
Impress your friends when you forecast weather yourself

Would you like to understand how weather works? Learn to make your own weather forecasts just by looking at nature’s signs. Or why not understand what they’re talking about on TV, during weather forecasts – fronts, low and high pressure, cyclones and anticyclones, winds… Learn to identify clouds for your next cloudspotting session and know how weather will change just by looking at them! Initiate yourself in Weather forecasting through simple experiments and with simple explanations.

Have you ever wondered how they are predicting weather on TV? Have you been fascinated by all that weather talk you’ve been hearing – such as anti-cyclones, prevailing winds, weather fronts, air masses…? Now is your chance to understand all of that! And everything through simple experiments that we will do and explain together.

I will teach you how to identify clouds, and thus to impress your friends when you will predict, in advance, that rain or a storm will be coming! Stratus, cirrus, cumulonimbus – all will start having a meaning for you, and you will be the best during your next cloud spotting session.

How to predict weather just by looking at nature? You will know how to answer this question and plenty of others, and you will know how to explain it!

Weather is amazing! Understanding how it works, and especially how to forecast it by yourself with nature’s signs – is just overwhelming!

Period: All year round
Start time: Announced later
Departure from: Your accommodation in Varanger
Duration: About 3h
Nr. participants: Private group (1-4)
Difficulty: Easy

Aurora Labs Nature Science Universe

Legacy Activity: Cloud Spotting Under the Midnight Sun

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 29 August 2025
No Comments on Legacy Activity: Cloud Spotting Under the Midnight Sun

Cloud spotting under the midnight sun

At Aurora Labs, my passion for science and nature runs deep. While I’ve streamlined my tour packages to offer a more focused experience for my guests, I believe that knowledge should always be accessible. This activity is no longer offered as part of Aurora Labs tours, but I am proud to share its description as a legacy of my educational offerings. This post serves as an archive for one of my most unique legacy activity: “Cloud Spotting under the Midnight Sun”. I’m happy to keep the content here for anyone who wants to learn more about the fascinating world of cloudspotting.

Cloud Spotting Under the Midnight Sun

Discover clouds from a different perspective
Learn to name clouds and predict what weather they bring
Discover the Midnight Sun scientifically
If clouds permit, see the Sun and its sun spots with a telescope
Have a snack and a drink right under the Midnight Sun
Take beautiful pics of the Arctic wilderness in summer

Do this activity with me and you’ll just love clouds after that, I promise! Clouds are much more than just something that bring bad weather or that cover Auroral displays. They can be used to predict weather and there’s a whole science behind them. And when you see them illuminated by the Midnight Sun here in the Arctic, that’s even better! Discover clouds like you’ve never done before, learn to name them and to predict what weather they bring, and (scientifically) observe the Sun in all its beauty.

Do you find clouds bad messengers for nasty weather, or a cover that stops you from seeing the Northern Lights? I promise that you will rethink this, once you carry out this activity with me up here in the Arctic! Clouds are much more than that! And they’re just beautiful!

This activity is centred around clouds and the Midnight Sun. We’ll start by finding a nice spot where to lay down and look at the clouds, in the light of the Midnight Sun (a bit before midnight though!) To better understand these phenomena, we will carry out fun experiments. Then it’s time to learn to name the clouds, and to understand what these different cloud types mean and bring along.

If the weather permits, we’ll then focus ourselves a bit on the Sun, which is shining this period around the clock here in the Arctic summer. We will observe it with a telescope and we will try to decrypt its mysteries together! The Sun is a star, exactly like the other millions of stars out there, so why not look at it with a telescope*, too? We must, however, use a special filter (called a solar filter) to observe it, as it is so close to us. Never look at the Sun directly without using special protection!

We’ll then conclude the activity with some snacks and drinks right here in the wilderness, right under the Midnight Sun, and try to take some nice photos of the sky, right in the middle of the Arctic landscape.

Period: From May 16 to July 27
Start time: Evenings
Departure from: Your accommodation in Varanger
Duration: About 3h
Nr. participants: Private group (1-4)
Difficulty: Easy

Aurora Labs Culture

The Ar(c)tistic Project

For a long time, the Ar(c)tistic Project was a cherished part of the Aurora Labs family. It was born from a simple idea: to connect the incredible beauty of the Arctic with the power of human creativity. While Aurora Labs has evolved its services to focus on private, guided Arctic and Aurora tours, I never want to lose the legacy of this project.

This page is a permanent home for the wonderful contributions I’ve received over the years, a tribute to the artists and dreamers who saw the North as their muse.

Thank you everyone for having been part or the Ar(c)tistic initiative!

Northern Lights and Arctic Landscapes from Garrick Lam

« I am from Hong Kong and have been fascinated by the magnificence of northern lights. After I had the opportunity to travel to the Arctic, I am more drawn into the northern light magic, breathtaking natural landscape and the heart-warming culture of the Arctic. These are the inspiration of my paintings. I hope I will have the chance to live in the Arctic and continue to be amazed by the Arctic. »

Don’t stop dreaming and fight for your dream, Garrick! Aurora Labs was born from a similar dream The best of luck to you!

Northern Lights and Northern Landscapes from Doina B.

« I am Doina B., a retired person, who started painting at the age of 63! Even if we do it clumsily and imperfectly, we need to let imagination run free! Therapy through arts works wonders! »

Imperfections make the world beautiful! Keep up the excellent work, Doina!

Cool Drawings from Alex

Alex is a 7-year-old droll boy, passionate about Lego and drawing. He’s been passionate about drawing since he was little, starting with small paintings on the rooms’ walls, then continuing by filling whole sketchpads with landscapes from his trips or with his favorite characters from fairytales.

As you can see on Alex’s map of Europe, Norway is best represented by the Northern Lights! Thanks Alex for your awesome contribution to the project! Looking forward for more of your very cool drawings!

The Northern Lights in Art

There are some wonderful works of art having the Aurora as main focus. Find here a few of these works of art, which depict this wonderful phenomenon!

Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church (1865)

Image credit: Frederic Edwin Church artist QS:P170,Q366212 Details of artist on Google Art Project (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: Frederic_Edwin_Church_-_Aurora_Borealis_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg), “Frederic Edwin Church – Aurora Borealis – Google Art Project”, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

Skiing Lapp with the Northern Lights by Frants Bøe (1885)

Image credit: Frederic Edwin Church artist QS:P170,Q366212 Details of artist on Image credit: Frants Diderik Bøe artist QS:P170,Q1796156 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: Frants_Bøe_-_Sami_on_skis_in_northern_lights,_1885.jpg), “Frants Bøe – Sami on skis in northern lights, 1885”, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

Northern Lights by Tom Thomson (1917)

Image credit: Tom Thomson author QS:P170,Q2035136 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: Tom_Thomson_Northern_Lights.jpg), “Tom Thomson Northern Lights”, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-1996

Norwegian currency

Noteworthy from an artistic point of view, is the now outdated 200 NOK banknote. In 1994, a 200 NOK banknote was issued, which featured, on the front side, the portrait of Kristian Birkeland, a Norwegian magnetism researcher against a stylized Aurora Borealis. It also shows Birkeland’s terrella experiment, on the left side. The backside of this banknote features a stylized Auroral Oval, also evoking the fact that there are daytime Northern Lights in places covered by 24 hours darkness during the polar night, which was an impressive discovery at the time.

Images credit: Norges Bank

Aurora Labs

A Heartfelt Thank You to Aurora Labs’ First Supporters

Post author By Sergiu
Post date 28 August 2025
No Comments on A Heartfelt Thank You to Aurora Labs’ First Supporters

Sergiu under Varanger's yellow sky

Every journey has a starting point, and for Aurora Labs, that beginning was fueled by a dream and the incredible support of a few kind souls. Aurora Labs’ path was challenging from the start in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic cast a shadow of uncertainty over the project’s future.

Even so, you chose to support me. Your faith and generosity became the very foundation upon which Aurora Labs was built. For that, I am eternally grateful. This page is my permanent tribute to you – the amazing individuals who believed in this project from the very beginning.

A huge thank you to all of you, who believed in Aurora Labs:

ELENA C., EUGEN C., PERSIDA C.

PATRICK S.

DANIELLE S., CELINE D., GABRIEL S., DAGMAR L., CHARLES B., JOSEPHINE B.

ANNA R., DIANA D.

Even though my first crowdfunding campaign was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of you wanted nevertheless to support Aurora Labs. Your contributions are extremely appreciated!

A huge thank you to all of you, who believe in Aurora Labs:

Not to forget also the support of Vadsø Kommune, who believed in the Aurora Labs project from the very beginning.

Thank you!

Aurora Labs