Northern Lights illusion

All cats are grey in the dark, the Scandinavians say

The intrepid traveller has journeyed to the edge of the world and braved double-digit sub-zero temperatures, endured the perpetual dreary darkness of winter at the North Pole. He hopes to witness the phenomenon of the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, described by travellers and poets as ‘vast curtain of pale greenish-yellow’, ‘a gigantic flame’, ‘a huge rose’ and so on.

But what does he see instead? Translucent streaks of white in the sky. He knows they aren’t clouds because he can see twinkling stars through them. The tour guide tries to mollify him with an old Scandinavian saying – all cats are grey in the dark. But this is no consolation for the traveller. Later, he learns that the year of his visit was in the trough of the 11-year solar cycle: weak solar activity, poor display.

Yet, when he returns home, the selfies he so proudly posts show a resplendent riot of colours. His guide had set his high-end camera to slow shutter speeds, long exposure times, and tweaked a bewildering array of other settings to capture the colours he could not see. For him and the others in his group, it was a monochromatic affair – all snow and white sky. But his social media posts proudly showcase a sky awash in dazzling swathes of colour. His friends send a flood of wow emojis and superlatives about how lucky he is and how envious they are of his once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Deep inside, the traveller wrestles with a philosophical conundrum. If you don’t see something with the naked eye, can you claim to have seen it? He doesn’t confess to his friends that it was his camera that saw the colours. There’s guilt but also an internal defence – it’s the same as looking at wildlife through binoculars or at bacteria through a microscope.

Now the traveller says that the Sun is at the peak of its cycle, and advises with confidence that this is a prime time for witnessing the Aurora Borealis. Do not delay, he urges. Book your trip to the North Pole (or as far north as your budget permits). Maybe, unlike the traveller, you will return with colourful memories of a kaleidoscopic sky captured by your own two eyes. The Scandinavian cats will appear in vivid greens, reds, blues and purples. This is your chance to prove the old adage wrong.