- Where?
- When?
- How?
Where?
It doesn't matter if there's a lot of solar activity if there's poor vision. And with poor vision I mean basically clouds.
So, first thing you need to know where you'll have more chances to catch a northern light search for a cloudless area.
This webpage has an hourly map of cloud coverage and it's pretty precise.
So choose wisely where to spend the night. And obviously, stay away from cities light!
When?
If you have clear vision the next thing you need is solar activity.
There's a system of measuring aurora strenght and it's call KP.
The higher the PK, the higher the chances to catch and aurora. With 3 or more the chances are moderate to high in a clear night.
It's even possible to see them with PK 2 in a moonless night if you don't have light polution.
You can check this website, which has been very acurate to predict aurora activity withing the next 24 hours.
Also this app had been pretty nice in my experience.
Android / iOs
How?
It's a proffesional camera a must to catch an aurora? How about smartphones?
Well, I'm not a proffesional photographer so I'm just gonna talk about my own experience.
I didn't bring a camera (I don't have one), just took photos from my cellphone (Huawei Honor 8), not even had a tripod.
They're not clearly what you call a good shot, but they're better than expected:
Can't say the same about my girlfriend smartphone (Samsung galaxy A5). It was nearly impossible to catch a pic.
If you wanna try the newbie way, you need to use long exposure time (the pics taken with my phone were with 4 to 8 seconds exposure). ISO 1600/3200 worked for me.
But after reading a lot of comments it's highly recomended to bring a real camera and a tripod if you want to capture nice pics.
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