Northern Manitoba Province is an excellent location to observe the northern lights. It is also one of the few places in North America where one can take a well-maintained paved road at interstate highway speeds to many sites in the far north. From Winnipeg, a several hour trek north on Route 6 places an observer in pristine skies and wild backcountry. Why bother taking one of those expensive Baffin Island trips, when you can cheap out by driving to Manitoba, crashing in the van and eating canned food?
Aurora is seen almost every night in this part of the country. This photograph was taken by Steve Fishman in September 1992 near the 54th north latitude. Glow from the aurora can be seen in the face of his travelling companion, Joe Manacci, in the windows of his van. More photos to follow when they are scanned.
Just some examples of the various shapes and colors that aurora can take. All aurora photos on this page were taken with a 35 mm camera using lenses ranging from 24 to 50 mm. Exposure times ranged from 15 to 60 seconds.
An overhead view.
Another overhead view. It has the same effect as looking down a railroad track where the tracks appear to converge far down the horizon. In this view the auroral rays converge over 50 to 70 miles (80-110 kilometers) over our observing site.
Our campsite abut 200 miles north of Winnipeg. Broadcast TV and radio is non-existent in many areas of northern Manitoba, so satellite is the best way to keep up on the weather and news. Steve from Chagrin Valley, Mike and Joe from the Black River club (near Lorain, Ohio) and friend Rich hang out in front of "Motel Manitoba" getting ready for another night of aurora observing.
After a busy night of observing aurora and watching satellite TV, we cook a hot meal of freshly caught pike and onions at the local dump. A bear decides to visit our kitchen while Steve offers it our dinner scraps.
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Updated July 24, 1997