Chasing Canada's polar lights

With solar maximum peaking and a new Moon promising dark skies, Jamie Carter travels to Churchill, Manitoba to hunt the Northern Lights - and dodge polar bears – in Canada's far north

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If Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation, dominates the northern sky above Canada, then below it – across the frozen Arctic tundra – it’s Ursus maritimus, the polar bear, that rules.

And between the constellation and the polar bears lies the auroral oval, a near-permanent ring of light that circles Earth's poles.

Churchill, Manitoba is bear country in every sense. Even the word Arctic comes from the Greek ‘arktós’, meaning bear, a nod to the constellations circling Polaris, the North Star. That North Star always hangs high above this frontier town located at latitude 59° north, where 890 people – and almost as many polar bears – live on the shore of Hudson Bay. I'm here with 15 others on a special science-themed Lazy Bear Expeditions trip to see and to learn about the Northern Lights. And the timing is no accident – it's September, it's the equinox, and there's a new Moon, all of which maximise our chances of geomagnetic activity and dark skies. It's also halfway between the Beluga whale-spotting season (June–August) and near peak polar bear months (October and November), so we've a decent chance of seeing both, as well as the aurora – if skies are clear. All the rumours on the two-hour plane ride from Winnipeg have been of cloud, but we arrive in sync with a high-pressure system – it's suddenly all blue skies and short sleeves – and a forecast for lots of geomagnetic activity in a few days.

Lights, rifles... action!