Mother Nature on acid

The thing to do in Alaska right now: Go to an “aurorium,” stay up all night and search the sky for supercharged green, purple, yellow or red streamers. That’s what the northern lights look like around the start of spring at high latitudes. During the vernal equinox, electrically charged solar winds get an unusually clear path through the Earth’s magnetic field to create amped-up aurora displays -- clouds permitting.

“We saw a great one [March 13],” Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, e-mailed from Fairbanks, adding that the following three nights were less than stellar. To see the psychedelic dance outside Alaska, find an aurorium (that’s really what they call viewing structures) on the Web. Warning: Hours may slip by as you gaze at swirl after mesmerizing swirl. Auroras, real or virtual, take various forms, commonly described as streamers, arcs, banks, rays or hanging draperies.

Science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/aurora/gallery_01mar04.htm carries recent images from around the world archived by month. Troy Birdsall, a 21-year-old electrician who’s been photographing the aurora for years, hosts a real-time Web cam on his site www.aurorawebcam.com along with an impressive photo and video gallery. It’s worth a visit just to read the quirky bio of his Web master, who lives in the Bieszczady Mountains of Poland, has never met Birdsall, and is still hooked on “Northern Exposure.”