Vincent Ledvina - 'The Aurora Guy'

Vincent Ledvina - 'The Aurora Guy' Hi! 👋🏻 My name is Vincent Ledvina. I am a professional aurora chaser and Space Physics Ph.D. student studying space weather 🌌.

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska and run aurora tours 📸. Check out my website theauroraguy.com or the links below for more info!

The May page of my 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar has a photo from Churchill, Manitoba, and the sidebar beside the date g...
10/02/2026

The May page of my 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar has a photo from Churchill, Manitoba, and the sidebar beside the date grid explains why the aurora season runs so much later there than it does in Fairbanks. The auroral oval sits over the geomagnetic pole in northern Canada rather than the geographic North Pole, so Churchill keeps darker nights well into spring.

Every month in the calendar is laid out the same way. The aurora photo runs across the top of the page, a written sidebar sits next to the date grid, and the grid has the astronomy marked on it. On the May grid that means the Eta Aquariid meteor shower peak on May 6, with the approximate number of meteors per hour beside it, and the four moon phases on the dates they fall. May 10 is marked as the third anniversary of the extreme geomagnetic storm of May 10 to 13, 2024. The U.S. edition also carries Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Victoria Day and Memorial Day.

The photos in this post are mockups of the May page hanging on a wall, so you can get an idea of how it will look at home.

The 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar launches on Friday, October 9 at 9 AM Alaska time, in two versions, U.S./Canada and international:
https://theauroraguy.com/products/awesome-auroras-2027-calendar

Sign up for my email list for a chance at 20% off when it launches:
https://go.theauroraguy.com/email

If you are planning a trip to Fairbanks to see the aurora, book your tour nights before you book the rest of the trip.Mo...
10/01/2026

If you are planning a trip to Fairbanks to see the aurora, book your tour nights before you book the rest of the trip.

Most people go in the opposite order. A flight deal sets the dates, the hotel gets booked around the flight, and the aurora tour gets picked from whatever nights are still open by then. The trip ends up arranged around an airfare instead of around the nights you actually wanted.

Here is the order I would use. Lock your travel dates first. Then choose your tour night early in the stay rather than at the end, for two reasons. What you learn on a guided night makes every night after it a better decision, and if that night gets canceled for weather, booking it early leaves room to reschedule before you fly home.

Lodging and tours are worth treating as a single decision. Pickup and drop-off happen inside 20 road miles of downtown Fairbanks, which is standard practice across the tour companies operating here. Borealis Basecamp sits inside that radius and Chena Hot Springs Resort sits outside it, so where you book your room decides whether your guide can collect you at all. Check the radius before you book the room.

I partner with two guides in Fairbanks, Maia and Levi. Levi is a commercial pilot, so reading weather models is already part of his day job, and he applies the same habit to the solar wind data. His season opens on November 26 and runs through April 20, his standard tours are capped at five guests, and a private tour can go up to six.

How I would plan the whole trip, including the order to book in:
https://theauroraguy.com/pages/how-to-plan-a-trip-to-fairbanks-alaska-to-see-the-aurora

Tours with Maia and Levi:
https://theauroraguy.com/pages/aurora-tours

Levi photographed this on one of his tours. Every booking includes the photos your guide takes during the night. You can book with him here:
https://theauroraguy.com/pages/levis-aurora-tours

10/01/2026

Dancing northern lights over Alaska. How wonderful!

8. Days. My 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar will be available soon!Along with eclipses, meteor showers, and moon phases, t...
10/01/2026

8. Days. My 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar will be available soon!

Along with eclipses, meteor showers, and moon phases, the equinoxes and solstices are marked on the date grids as well, and the March page explains why the equinox matters if you chase the aurora. Near the equinoxes, the geometry of Earth's tilt relative to the Sun lines our magnetic field up better with the solar wind, which makes substorms more likely. This is particularly important for radial solar wind which flows out of coronal holes. The polarity of the solar wind which is most effective changes with the season: negative polarity is preferable in the spring while positive polarity is preferable in the fall (like right now!). The equinox effect is one of the reasons March is such a good month to come to Fairbanks, along with clearer skies on average and cold that has eased off from the deep winter months. September works the same way at the other end of the year, with dark nights coming back and the temperature still mild. All months are good for the aurora. Some are just a little better than others...

The calendar launches on Friday, October 9 at 9 AM Alaska time. You can see it here:
https://theauroraguy.com/products/awesome-auroras-2027-calendar

The first 100 customers get 20% off, and the discount code goes out to everyone on my email list on launch morning. You can sign up here:
https://go.theauroraguy.com/email

Hello everyone, here is your daily update on what the Sun is doing:(This information was largely paraphrased from NOAA S...
10/01/2026

Hello everyone, here is your daily update on what the Sun is doing:

(This information was largely paraphrased from NOAA SWPC's recent forecast discussion)

Solar activity was very low over the past day, with no flares of C-class or larger. Flares are ranked A, B, C, M and X, each ten times stronger than the one before, and the number after the letter gives the strength within that class, so an M5 is five times stronger than an M1. Both active regions on the visible disk, Region 4544 and Region 4535, showed some decay. NOAA did not see any coronal mass ejections (CMEs) headed toward Earth over the past day. NOAA expects activity to stay very low, with a chance of C-class flares and a slight chance of an M-class flare through Saturday, October 3.

The solar wind was calm and slow over the past day, from about 270 to around 300 km/s. The Bz mostly pointed north. A southward IMF lets more of the solar wind's energy into Earth's magnetosphere and is important for "charging up" substorms and the aurora. The geomagnetic field stayed quiet (Kp 2 or lower). Quiet conditions should mostly continue until about midday on Friday, October 2, when the edge of a CME that left the Sun on September 28 is likely to reach Earth and could bring G1 storm levels (Kp 5). Active conditions (Kp 4) are expected on Saturday, October 3, as the CME's effects fade and a high-speed stream from a positive polarity coronal hole begins to arrive. A G1 storm can bring auroras to mid-latitudes, especially during substorms, and active conditions can bring more auroral activity to high latitudes. The exact areas with visible aurora will come down to real-time conditions, which can't be forecasted.

About the images:

On the left is the Sun in visible light from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), with each sunspot region labeled with NOAA's number, its magnetic class and its flare chances. On the right is the corona in extreme ultraviolet, with the coronal holes (sources of fast solar wind) outlined in green. On the far right is NOAA's 3-day Kp forecast.

Learn more about space weather science and the aurora in my free e-book:
https://go.theauroraguy.com/ebook

Treat NOAA's Kp forecast as a rough guide, and check real-time tools before deciding whether to head out.

More on why Kp can steer you wrong:
https://theauroraguy.com/blogs/blog/top-five-low-value-practices-to-avoid-aurora-chasing

Images courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA and HMI science teams. The sunspot regions, flare chances, coronal holes, Kp forecast and forecast discussion come from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

10/01/2026

Just a quick heads up that I’ll be downsizing my shop quite a bit today, and 40+ designs will be coming down to make way for my calendar launching on October 9. The mugs will be staying, but everything else is going. All products feature my photos.

Shop these last-minute items: https://theauroraguy.com/collections/all

"Twilight Season"This photo is the May page of my upcoming 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar, launching October 9 at 9 AM Al...
10/01/2026

"Twilight Season"

This photo is the May page of my upcoming 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar, launching October 9 at 9 AM Alaska time.

May is about the end of aurora season in Fairbanks. I once caught a faint wisp on May 5, but by then the nights are simply too bright. How much darkness you get during the summer depends on how far north you are, and above the Arctic Circle the sun never sets at all. Here is the twist: the auroral oval is not centered on the geographic North Pole. It sits over the geomagnetic pole in northern Canada, so it dips down over places much farther south. Churchill, Manitoba, is well south of Fairbanks but still sits under the oval, which gives it darker nights later into spring and a much longer viewing season. You can realistically see the lights there in mid-May and again by late July. Farther south still, the prairies and the northern Great Lakes are some of the best places anywhere to catch a summer aurora.

See the 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar:
https://theauroraguy.com/products/awesome-auroras-2027-calendar

Sign up for my email list for a chance at 20% off when it launches:
https://go.theauroraguy.com/email

10/01/2026

A coronal hole is directly facing Earth today. There is a chance for effects to get here as early as tomorrow with a G1 watch in effect for October 2. The 3-day Kp forecast (just used for context here) shows NOAA SWPC anticipates the compression region/most potent part of the structure to arrive Friday afternoon/evening UT.

For North American chasers and for anyone else really, the timing does not matter a whole lot for coronal holes. The ramp up in magnetic field strength and speed takes hours to days. It looks like Friday night will be the first night the fast wind will be affecting Earth, though. Thursday night (tonight) looks to be too early.

Who could see aurora? We will just have to see. With only a G1 watch in effect, chances for low-latitude auroral displays are LOW. However, folks along the U.S.-Canada border, northern Europe, and Tasmania/Southern New Zealand have a shot at horizon activity.

We will just have to see what the solar wind drags in tomorrow. For more information about the aurora, including how to forecast it, and how to watch coronal holes and anticipate their effects, download my free e-book "A Beginner's Guide to Aurora Chasing." https://go.theauroraguy.com/ebook

Clear skies and happy chasing!

The April page of my 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar has a photo taken standing on a frozen lake near Delta Junction, Alas...
10/01/2026

The April page of my 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar has a photo taken standing on a frozen lake near Delta Junction, Alaska, and the sidebar beside the date grid is about chasing the aurora from the lakes along the Richardson Highway southeast of Fairbanks.

Every month in the calendar is laid out the same way. The aurora photo runs across the top of the page, a written sidebar sits next to the date grid, and the grid has the astronomy marked on it. On the April grid that means the Lyrid meteor shower peak on April 23, with the approximate number of meteors per hour printed next to it so you can tell at a glance which showers are worth staying up for. The new moon, first quarter moon, full moon and last quarter moon are marked on the dates they fall, and the April full moon carries its name, the Pink Moon. Other months mark the equinoxes and solstices and the four eclipses in 2027.

The photos in this post are mockups of the April page hanging on a wall, so you can get an idea of how it will look at home.

The 2027 Awesome Auroras calendar launches on Friday, October 9 at 9 AM Alaska time, in two versions, U.S./Canada and international:
https://theauroraguy.com/products/awesome-auroras-2027-calendar

Sign up for my email list for a chance at 20% off when it launches:
https://go.theauroraguy.com/email

If you are planning a trip to Fairbanks to see the aurora in December, January, or February, the winter activities are t...
09/30/2026

If you are planning a trip to Fairbanks to see the aurora in December, January, or February, the winter activities are the best of the year, and the ones based from where you stay are the ones that fit around the aurora.

Most winter activities around Fairbanks do not start until November, when a permanent snowpack sets in, so they are a December-to-February sell rather than a fall one. At Borealis Basecamp, who I partner with, the days fill up from the property: dogsledding, snowmachining, skiing and snowboarding, Arctic Circle tours, and tours out to the Castner ice cave, all based from or arranged through Basecamp. During the short winter day the light is golden-hour light the whole time, which is why those activities look the way they do in the photos. From mid-February the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks overlap the end of this window as well.

Here is why that setup matters for the aurora. Chasing is a night job, and in Fairbanks the aurora usually peaks in intensity somewhere between 1 and 3 AM. A full day out that starts and ends at the property does not cost you an hour of driving on either end, so you get back and you are already under a dark sky, already warm, and already exactly where you need to be when the aurora picks up. The igloos and cubes have clear roofs over the bed, so the nights you are not out on a tour are nights you can watch from bed.

Basecamp sits about 25 miles north of Fairbanks and up at higher elevation, out of the light pollution and out of the ice fog that can settle over the valley on the coldest nights. My code THEAURORAGUY is worth up to $500 off, depending on what lodging and activities you book.

Where to stay in Fairbanks, with all the options:
https://theauroraguy.com/pages/where-to-stay-in-fairbanks-alaska

Daylight hours in Fairbanks through the winter:
https://theauroraguy.com/pages/fairbanks-visitors-guide

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