Hunting for the Northern Lights

One of the advantages of living in Regina is that it is the furthest North I have ever lived in Canada.  Presumably, this should improve my chances of seeing the Northern Lights rather dramatically.  And several times since we've been here the forecast has called for the Northern Lights to be visible from this area.

Last night was one of those nights that the Northern Lights were supposed to be visible throughout wide swaths of the North (or the not-so-far-North-but-further-North-than-most-of-the-North-American-population).  As neither Jeannette nor I have seen the Northern Lights we thought we might try to find them.

Fortunately, it was easy to head North and make it out of the city.  Not long after we were out of the city we were even off the more well traveled paved roads and really making our way through rural Saskatchewan.  Our hope was that if we were as far away from the city as possible the light of the city wouldn't bleed out and obscure our view.

Unfortunately, despite the clear skies we observed all day long, as the sun set cloud cover spread across the sky.  By the time we found our selves driving among several of Saskatchewan's many fields there was so much cloud cover the moon wasn't even visible.  Eventually things cleared enough that we were relatively confident that we could identify the outline of the moon.

So, not surprisingly, our first real attempt to head out to see the Northern Lights was a complete bust.  I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes on the Northern Lights forecast and hope for better weather on our next trip.