The Friday Fillip

We southerners are rarely able to see the stars, let alone the true spectacle of the heavens, the aurora borealis. But never fear: the internet to the rescue. The Canadian Space Agency maintains the AuroraMax Project, which features a web cam pointed at the Yellowknife sky — after dusk, natch. So the insomniacs among us can watch live as the northern lights play up in the ionosphere.

Now, Yellowknife is currently on Mountain Daylight Time, 6 hours off GMT, with sunset at around 7:20 p.m. local time. If you’re not prepared to stay up to catch the best of this cosmic son et lumière, you can check out the time-lapse video from any date, and, indeed, go straight to the Space Agency’s pick of the pops — nights when things went truly, wonderfully haywire.

The camera takes a fish-eye view straight up, so far as I can tell, so you’ll see a fringe of trees around the perimeter. And should you happen upon an extremely bright object that flares out much of your view, you’ve likely come across the moon; so you might want to pick a night with no moon or a time after the moon has set.

Oh, and I meant it when I said “son” along with “lumière.” I swear that I have heard the northern lights crackle and pop. And I’m not the only one. But the Space Agency cam doesn’t have a mic, so you’ll have to be your own Foley artist and gently crumple cellophane while you’re watching. (Cellophane? Er, that’s an early form of …