Talk Description to Me

Episode 27 - The Northern Lights

December 12, 2020 Christine Malec and JJ Hunt Season 1 Episode 27
Talk Description to Me
Episode 27 - The Northern Lights
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode, Christine and JJ look up; way up, to the Northern Lights. The aurora borealis is a beloved symbol of winter in the northern hemisphere, but it's clouded in mystery for those who have never seen it. Cup your hands around a hot drink, pull on your toque and scarf, and travel with us to the far north. 


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Christine Malec:

Just a quick note that there's still time to sign up for our live Year in Review event on December 17, at

7:

30pm. Eastern, where it's your turn to ask the questions. JJ will be answering your questions about the events of 2020. To RSVP, email talk description to me@gmail.com with the RSVP in the subject.

JJ Hunt:

Talk description to Me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.

Christine Malec:

Hi, I'm Christine Malec.

JJ Hunt:

And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashtag in description rich conversations.

Christine Malec:

This episode is going to be different from our typical format. And the reason for that is that we are going to talk about the Northern Lights. And the reason I say it's different is that I feel and I'm sure I'm right, that the experience of looking at these things is not like the experience of looking at a news broadcast or looking at an image. And so when JJ and I are talking about the subjects, one of the things that I definitely want to know about is the feelings involved. And we often talk about context in in these conversations and Okay, when you look at that image, what does it evoke for you, and this is an an episode where that's going to be especially relevant because I think you can't just describe the visuals of the Northern Lights. I think if you did that without talking about the feeling of looking at the sky, you'd be doing a disservice to, to the grantor of the universe and of the night sky. And so with that in mind, the Northern Lights are an iconic kind of visual phenomenon. And especially if you're in northern climes, as we are, it's something that many people have experience of, and people travel in order to to look at. And as a blind person who is super interested in astronomy, I have still I have the sketchiest notion of what the experience looks like. And so when I hear Northern Lights I imagined, like firecrackers and points of light in the sky. But I've heard intimations that that's not actually the case that it's much more complex and layered and interesting. And so, JJ, where do we start? I'm not even sure how to start asking questions about this.

JJ Hunt:

Well, maybe we should start with what the Northern Lights are, because that has an impact on on the description, on the visuals. So the Northern Lights are also called Aurora Borealis. And this is a very general understanding of what's going on here, but when the sun ejects a cloud of solar gas, and then two to three days later, those solar gases come reach Earth, and they collide with our magnetic field. Now the magnetic field is invisible, but apparently, what essentially there are tails at the poles. And when the solar gases interact with the oxygen and nitrogen atoms that are present in those tails, the magnetic field tails, they produce this dazzling light. And so that's what's happening. That's what's going on. And you can see the Northern Lights year round. If you are in some parts of the far north, like very far north in Alaska and Greenland, the best time of year is in the full winter and into early spring. That's when it gets as low as parts of northern Ontario, we see them. I've actually had the experience of seeing the Northern Lights a few times in my life in person. And then for this, I did a lot of research online as well. So I'm going to be drawing on my experiences, seeing them in person and also, you know, the wealth of visual information about this that's available online.

Christine Malec:

And JJ, I know as a describer, you strive for neutrality and objectivity and just describing what you see, and that's as it should be, but I'm hoping that for this description, this is more than the sum of the parts and I hope as as a listener, and hopefully our listeners agree that if you if and when you feel like there's more going on They're just the sum of the parts, I'd love for you to just cut loose and share that experience as well.

JJ Hunt:

Thanks, I appreciate the permission there because this is a this is a bit of a poetic thing, right? These lights are... they are extraordinary. And so I think you're right, if I restrict my descriptions to just the basics, the shape, the color, the quality of light, and don't talk about the the impact of experiencing them, then it does limit things a bit. But that being said, shall we start with those basics, the shape, the color, the quality and such?

Christine Malec:

Please, yeah, yeah.

JJ Hunt:

All right, so. Well, here's one thing I should start with; there isn't just one kind of Northern Light, there's a fluidity to it. And different reactions cause different colors and different shapes and, and different qualities and textures. So there's not just one thing that I'm going to be tried to describe, I'm going to try and describe the array of things. So starting with shape parts, sometimes there's a ribbon like quality to the Northern Lights. A long, long, long ribbon will sometimes cut across the night sky and then double back on itself and fold back and forth as it as it cuts across the horizon. And they do tend to be fairly close to the horizon, these ribbons, they have a relatively hard bottom edge that they tend to soften as it reaches up to the higher edge of the ribbon. So sometimes the ribbon has clearly defined edges, top and bottom and it looks like a band like a real solid ribbon of wavering light in the sky. But sometimes it looks almost like a line of soft flickering flames. So it's more solid at the bottom, but the flames kind of flicker up toward the heavens. And then sometimes the ribbons aren't really clearly defined at all, and they look more like waves in the sky waves of color, as opposed to these clearly defined ribbon shapes. And the colors. I mean, they're fairly extraordinary. There are pinks, greens, yellows, blues, violets. When the solar gases collide with oxygen, it creates the the golden yellows and the green colors. And when it when that gas collides with nitrogen, it produces the reds and the violets and sometimes those blue colors and images that are online obviously can be tweaked, especially the colors you can really pump up the colors in post production and videos and then photographs. But the colors can actually be fairly shockingly vibrant. In real life just standing under them in the dark sky. You can see colors that are almost neon. So the greens tend to be like bright apple green colors. Or they go down to like a more muted mint green color sometimes, and the blues range from vibrant sky blue colors, to more muted turquoise colors. And the violets there's an unnatural neon violet color like hot pink violet, that is honestly, it just doesn't look like it's the kind of color you would see in nature. It looks like a like a honestly like a tweaked color on on Photoshop or something. But it's up there. This on naturally neon violet color, hot pink and pale moebs. So all of these colors can go in the ribbons and the waves. And the movement, the quality of this light is it really does vary. So you can you can have a sky that has just a few ribbons of light. Or you can have a sky that is fully awash with color. Sometimes there are slowly swirling clouds of muted colors and different palettes. And sometimes there are layers of different colors like almost like the sky is filled with a close up detail of a nighttime rainbow. So you'll have a band of red and then above it a band of green and above it a band of of this purple mode color that are kind of muted, because you've zoomed in so much on this rainbow and the movement when you're standing under it in person. The movement of these lights tends to be slow and gentle. There's a calm quality to the movement of these lights,

Christine Malec:

Is it going from horizon to horizon, as in west to east? Does it cover the whole latitude of the sky?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, if you're in, as they say, Big Sky Country, where you don't have a lot of trees or mountains or anything around, you can see that they go from east to west, but they tend to be closer to the horizon lines, they tend not to go all the way overhead, although sometimes they do. Sometimes you have more of a wash of color that moves higher in the sky, but it does tend to be more along the horizon. But it can be vast, vast. Sometimes it looks like you're looking at these glowing lights through a sheer curtain that's blowing in the breeze. So if you've got lights that are completely filling the sky overhead, those tend not to be... they're not like, it's funny you mentioned fireworks. It's not that kind of quality, they're not sharp, they don't have those kinds of spikes. They tend to have a quality that is softer and gauzier, like you are seeing those kinds of lights through the sheer curtain. But if you get those bands, those ribbons of color, they can be more, there's almost a solid quality to them. The color is so dense and thick and vibrant, that it can look like a solid object, but it's still not um, it's not shaking, it's not whipping the ribbons, there's a soft movement, a very calming movement to it. Sometimes I think that they remind me a little bit, the ribbons have like a snake-like slithering quality to them sometimes. And then the other colors, there's almost, they reminds me a little bit of like, when you mix oil and water, and one kind of rides on top of the other and they don't coalesce. There's always a separate quality to it. And there's an oiliness to the swirling action of some of these colors.

Christine Malec:

Are they, is it ever static?

JJ Hunt:

Ah, it's good question. I mean, sometimes the lights are moving so slowly that it would appear almost static. But when you move when you watch the northern lights in time lapse, which is what how a lot of the videos are presented online, then you actually appreciate how much movement is going on. Even when it looks closer to static, there are there is movement in, in these colors movement in these shapes. And you get to see different patterns. When you when you when you put these things in in time lapse and move them at an increased speed. So you'll see rivers of light, and those gently snaking like slithering ribbons are they do start to bend back and forth and whip back and forth and it really does look almost like like someone's taking a long rope and whipping it back and forth back and forth and there's that kind of that whipping quality to it. And then the the flickering fire like quality. So there is a real I mentioned flames earlier and when you see the the northern lights in time lapse, you really get a sense of that fire light quality, then there is almost that sparkle sometimes where there'll be just a little flash of golden color in the green, or a little bit of a flash of red on a more violet color. And so that the fire like flickering comes out. It's very dramatic when you see the northern lights in time lapse.

Christine Malec:

You made a comparison to a snake-like movement. So it does seem to have a certain quality of something that looks alive. Is there anything about it that looks intelligent or intentional?

JJ Hunt:

Oh, interesting. That's not been my experience. My experience with them... There's something, there's a vastness to it. There's an all encompassing quality to the to the lights that I've seen. There's a an otherworldly quality to it. It certainly makes you feel small. When you see, when the sky is awash in these colors. I've had those feelings, but I've never thought of them as being, like they don't look intentional. There's not a musical quality to it.

Christine Malec:

Okay,

JJ Hunt:

Where you can almost, you know, picture those kinds of patterns. Yeah.

Christine Malec:

I feel like looking at it on a computer screen must be a bit depressing. And I would like it if you could remember times when you saw them in person, and maybe I'm just projecting here but it seems to me like those would be sort of peak experiences that you would I remember clearly so if you're if you're willing, I wonder if you'd be able to share an actual memory of like, take us to where you were and what it was like for you.

JJ Hunt:

Absolutely, absolutely. So the times that I've been watching online, I mean that it's funny, I haven't found them as depressing as I have found, like, when we did the fall colors. I found that more depressing to watch online than then the Northern Lights. Because I got something new out of watching the northern lights in time lapse.

Christine Malec:

Ooooh.

JJ Hunt:

There's something new that can happen, there's more of a light show kind of quality to it. Whereas with the leaves, it was just like, "this would be better if I was in-person".

Christine Malec:

Oh wow.

JJ Hunt:

It's just unequivocal. But that being said, you're absolutely right, the experience of being in these skies or experiencing these in person is on a different level. It's a different thing altogether. So I can I can think of a couple of time when I was a kid. We used to go to a cottage up in the the Kawarthas. And it was far enough away from any city lights that if the northern lights came low enough, if there was some sort of magnetic storm or something that brought the lights further south, we would have an opportunity to go see them. And this was a cottage that was a lake access only cottage. Of course, the lake would be frozen over, we'd be up in the winter. And we would put on our snow shoes and get out onto the frozen lake and walk out into the middle of the of the lake. And turn our attention to the skies. And I remember being maybe nine or 10. And seeing greens, it was a it was a green sky. And the ribbons were so perplexing to me, because... I was expecting the cloudy, swirling colors, I was expecting the softness of it, I was expecting the vastness of it. Those things were amazing, but I was expecting them. But the solid green ribbons that dance. People use the word dance a lot, that the colors dance across the sky. And there is a dancing kind of quality to the movements. There's not a beat to it by any stretch. But the movement is so fluid. And these bands of color were so solid, they looked real, they looked tangible in a way that I wasn't expecting. I remember that a couple of times being up at the cottage and doing that as a kid. And then later, when I was in my early 20s I went backpacking up into the Yukon. And I was just outside of Whitehorse, and I borrowed a headlamp from someone, and I hiked into the woods. And just as a little side note, I remember starting to get really scared. As I hiked away from my car parked at the side of a road and I started hiking into the woods. You know, I wasn't someone who normally got particularly scared of being in the dark. But so this was in the late 90s, like 99 I guess. And I had this headlamp on hiking into the woods, and The Blair Witch Project had recently come out and there was something about the headlamp on my head. So the way the light moves is everywhere you move your head the light moves, right that was how The Blair Witch Project was entirely filmed with the light mounted on the camera. And so seeing the light wash across trees wherever my head turned, freaked me out, I did take it off and hold the light in my hand and I was fine. Because it was the it was the action of moving my head and having the light hit exactly what I was looking at and nothing else didn't like it at all.

Christine Malec:

Ha ha ha!

JJ Hunt:

Anyway, so I hiked through the woods and then got to a clearing and and looked up at the sky. And it was one of those gobsmacked moments, you know? I'm in the Yukon, I'm on my own, and there's no other human, there's no light around from any other human source. It's all up above. And that sky was more of the purples and blues. And there was more of the flame kind of quality to it. Just a little bit of a flicker, that gentle flicker of light. And the ribbons weren't as solid, but they were they were tall. The flames, the long row of blue and purple flames was something else. Again, it just wasn't. You know, it was not of this world. There's nothing else that I can, that I've seen in nature that compares to this kind of, to that kind of color, that kind of movement. Which is why I keep going back to things like waves and flames because it's as close as I can get to the quality. But it is, in my experience, it is unique. The northern lights are unique.

Christine Malec:

And there's no other astronomical phenomenon that elicits that either, because I'm thinking that even just looking up at the night sky on a clear night in the country would be profound. But it's not the same. Those are fairly static sort of moments.

JJ Hunt:

That's right, I imagine if you are outside of Earth, there are probably different phenomena that have similar color and similar movement. But from our position here on Earth, there's nothing else like the Northern Lights,

Christine Malec:

Are the Northern Lights visible from outside the atmosphere?

JJ Hunt:

They are. You can see the northern lights from the space station.

Christine Malec:

Gasp! Oh!

JJ Hunt:

There are images of that. They look more... there's a blanket quality to them. Because you get to see, you get to see all the edges.

Christine Malec:

Oh wow. You're not you know, when you're standing on the ground, and you're looking up, you see as much as you can see from your slice of the horizon. But when you're up above, you see the whole thing, it's like seeing a storm from above. Wow!

JJ Hunt:

It is, you know, magnetic storms. Yeah. So there's that there's a blanket quality to it. And it doesn't, it seems to me, it doesn't have quite the same depth, because you're seeing it from above. So you're looking right through it in lots of cases.

Christine Malec:

Whoa.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah.

Christine Malec:

Now you described it as generally being close to the horizon. So if you consider that the horizon covers 180 degrees, like if you looked in front of you, and then turned your head and looked all the way behind you, that would be 180 degrees. How far up the sky, would you guess?

JJ Hunt:

Well it changes. If it's just the ribbons... the ribbons, in my experience, tend to be along the horizon. And they don't go as far up overhead. So in other words, if you're gonna, if you're going to follow the ribbons, you're going to turn your head from side to side, not tip your head back to look up higher. Whereas the the waves and the clouds of swirling color tend to be (and again, these are just "tends to", right? the these are not hard and fast rules by any stretch) but those kind of swirling colors that cover vast areas tend to be ones where you're going to tip your head back so that you can look higher in the sky.

Christine Malec:

Would they ever go past 90 degrees? Like past straight overhead?

JJ Hunt:

That's a good question. It's hard when I'm looking at these images online. It's difficult.

Christine Malec:

Right, you could only go from having been there.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, exactly in person, the experiences that I've had, I don't remember them being that high directly overhead. They do tend to be closer to you know, even when they're high in the sky, they tend to be closer to the horizon is my is my recollection.

Christine Malec:

And do they look, sometimes you'll hear descriptions, or I've often read descriptions of like, say, the moon and the moon looks so big that you felt you could reach out and touch it. But then clouds are described as being very far away and remote. So how do the Northern Lights fit in? Or do they look very far away? Or do they look like you're almost in them?

JJ Hunt:

Great question. So they do look far away. But the the more solid the color, the easier it is to believe that you could touch it. So when you get those ribbons, there's something so tangible, there's something so solid. I think that's part of what it is about the moon. When you get a moon, that is not only big, but clear.

Christine Malec:

Hmmm.

JJ Hunt:

When you can see that moon and it's crisp and clear, and you can start to see details with the, with the naked eye as they say, that's when you feel like "I could reach out and grab it!" because it looks real. It's about how real it looks. Not just about how big it is. And so when those when those green ribbons look solid, and they're moving, your mind slots it into a different understanding of reality. Like, "Oh, that's a real tangible thing. I could reach out and grab it."

Christine Malec:

Oh, interesting. And how bright is it? Is it making light that's, say, comparable to moon light? To light up the night sky?

JJ Hunt:

That's a good question. I'm not sure how you would measure that. Certainly not like if you've got a bright moon. You can almost read. On a bright Full Moon, if you're out in a dark place

Christine Malec:

Do you know the images you refer to as having Oh, ok. it can be almost that br ght. You can get a moon sh dow. I don't think that No thern Lights get quite that br ght. Although it's quite po sible if you're far north. Far n rth where it's really dark and t e lights are very bright, it's p ssible that that's the case, I onestly don't know. gotten from online? Do you know where they were taken? Or who's taking them or why?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, lots of people that, as you mentioned earlier, there's a tourism industry built around this. And there are obviously spots in the world where you can go and they just have your odds of seeing the lights in a particular season are quite good. And so there are, I've seen some folks who do like night camping trips in the winter, so they they'll outfit you with all the gear for winter camping. And then you set yourself up in the middle of the night. And you you get your cameras out and take pictures and video. And so there's a lot of images in, in Greenland, and in the far north and Canada that have these kinds of expeditions, these photography expeditions to watch and capture the Northern Lights. And those in from the research that I just did for this, obviously, you get some just incredible professional and semi professional photography of these lights, both image and video. And some are paired with music. They're extraordinary. But for me, I like the fun of ones that are community groups, people who live in a place who you know, they're in a spot and the lights come out, and they're particularly brilliant one night, and so all neighbors gather on their lawns or whatever. And they go out and someone's got a cell phone and they film like that. And what I love about those videos is not only do you get to see the lights, which are pretty cool, but you get to see the reaction of the people who are experiencing them. And sometimes they're brilliant enough and there's enough flickering movement even without the time lapse that people are gasping."Oh, did you see that one? Did you see that? Did you catch that flicker? I can't believe the purples in the sky tonight!" You know, there's that kind of joy that the light shows that are put together by the professional and semi professional photographers don't quite capture. They capture the how awe-inspiring they these lights are, and the fascinating light show. But then but some of the joy isn't there.

Christine Malec:

Am I right in assuming that it's extremely hypnotic that you could just sit and watch it for hours.

JJ Hunt:

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they are... they're trippy.

Christine Malec:

Yeah.

JJ Hunt:

You sit back, if you've got the right chair, the right flask in hand, just sit back. I mean it is, it's mesmerizing. And it's gentle, and calming. Yeah, absolutely.

Christine Malec:

I can't help but inject this this funny little story, which is that there's a cruise line that advertises as Northern Lights cruises. And their guarantee is if you don't see the Northern Lights on the cruise, you can book another cruise for free. And I figure us blind people we should just totally inundate them because we'll never see it So we can just keep going, and go "Nope, I didn't see 'em. No

JJ Hunt:

Ha ha! There's your retirement plan right ther. We love making this podcast. If you love hearing it, perhaps you'll consider supporting its creation and development by becoming a patron. We've set up a Patreon page to help cover the costs of putting the show together. You can contribute as a listener or as a sponsor to help ensure that accessible and entertaining journalism continues to reach our community. Visit patreon.com slash talk description to me that's pa t ar e o n.com slash talk description to me have feedback or suggestions of what you'd like to hear about here's how to get in touch with us. Our email address is talk descriptio to me@gmail.com. Our Faceboo page is called talk descriptio to me. Our website is ta k description to me.com and y u can follow us on Twitter at ta k descriptio I love it.

Intro to the Northern Lights
The look of the lights
Personal experiences
The never-ending cruise