I moved to the middle of the empty to shoot the northern lights every day
One night in 2018, I was watching videos on YouTube and I met a man who took great pictures of Saturn in his backyard. I was amazed. I had no idea it was even possible.
I started exploring the hobby and couldn’t believe my eyes what I saw in spiral galaxies, colorful nebulae, and close-ups of lunar craters taken from people’s backyards with inexpensive devices. So of course a week later I bought a telescope that I had no idea how to use.
Despite my ignorance, I checked to see if there were astronomers nearby or events I could attend where I could meet people and learn how to take such photos. I was lucky: it was only a month before the annual summer meeting of Finnish amateur astronomers in Cygnus. I went there and met many people I still deal with on a daily basis, years later. They gave me helpful advice to get you started. Later I also got the keys to the nearby Helsinki Observatory, where I held my own star festival.
Personally, I have never been a person in a very deep sky, because we had too much light pollution on it in Helsinki. The planets were my thing, but I was too north for them. As for the northern lights, I was too south. So you could say that Helsinki was not worth it in vain! Moving south wasn’t an actual option because I didn’t want to live in another country, but I could move further north to get closer to the northern lights.
In 2020, I started studying astrophysics at the University of Oulu, which is located 600 kilometers north of Helsinki. There I would see northern lights, but weak. They rarely rose high in the sky and light pollution was a problem as it is one of the largest cities in the country. The Covid pandemic was also underway at the time and studies were online, which meant the student could live elsewhere and progress in his studies.
Living in “Lapland” in the far north of Finland was a dream for me, because the nature there is very different than elsewhere in the country. The area has a decent winter with lots of snow and cold temperatures, fells, wilderness, national parks, reindeer and of course northern lights – it’s one of the best places for northern lights in the world.
I started looking for houses and saw a place above the Arctic Circle called “Salla “I had never visited or even heard of it, but I did research and thought it sounded interesting. There were only two small grocery stores within a radius of about 100 kilometers, with a population density of 0.59 people per square kilometer (reindeer are more than people) and nearby great fells.
So I moved there in February 2021.
When I drove there for the first time with my family after I had already received the house, they laughed at how “nothing in the middle” it really is. My astronomer friends from southern Finland also said with a joke that a bear eats me there. In a related story, the locals actually recommended that I take a bear watch with me when I chase the northern lights at night.
The house is small but suitable for me. It is located near the city center between two fields where I see reindeer almost daily. I also noticed that the city street lights went out around 10pm every night. Not all, but most. This means that the already dark sky is getting darker.
![Dennis Lehtonen pictures](https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2022/02/MyHouseLightsOn-800x534.jpg)
As for auroras, I see them almost every bright night and they are very often right on my head. Sometimes they cover the whole sky and the snow on the ground looks green because of the glow of the northern lights. It feels so strange to walk on the roads at midnight when everything is completely quiet, there is no traffic or other people. No street lights, just bright northern lights in the sky. It feels like living on another planet.
![](https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2022/02/NearHouseAurora12-800x534.jpg)
It may come as a surprise to many, but I don’t have a car and I’ve never wanted it. I get to places where I had to be on my reliable bike, even though the weather was terrible. Temperatures are regularly below -30 degrees and I still cycle in the middle of snowy forests to get to places. This is how I chase northern lights: by bicycle.
I am often asked two things: How do I endure the cold and do I ever get tired of auroras? The cold really doesn’t bother me too much. Although I have to say I’ve never sweated while standing in the snow for hours, I still make it.
However, my camera’s batteries are not working. They wear out really fast and then my fingers can also freeze because I often take off my gloves when I’m actively shooting.
As for the saturation of the northern lights, it depends on the intensity of the northern lights. I no longer like little ones who are mostly in the northern sky or are weak. But of course I’m still crazy about the big northern lights shows. The best thing about Northern Lights is that every night is different. You never know what shapes northern lights will take and what colors you will see. That’s why chasing them is so much fun.
About the author: Dennis Lehtonen is a 26-year-old photographer who moved to Salla to focus on his love of shooting northern lights. After 11 months, Lehtonen moved further north to Sodankylä, where he continues to take extensive pictures of the night sky. More of his work can be seen on his site Instagram.