aurōrae: an electrifying way to experience the Northern Lights

Sleet, rain and decidedly darker days… Sigh! It’s already November, but don’t be discouraged! This foretaste of winter also promises some extraordinary events: the breathtaking colours of the aurora borealis will cut across our grey skies when the Planétarium’s new show, aurōrae, begins playing.

When the sky comes alive

With the international year of light nearing an end, the Planétarium decided to celebrate by summoning the aurora borealis to dance in one of our theatres. Though the night sky may seem immutable, when the auroras light up, the heavens become a backdrop for a captivating, electrifying, living lightshow.

The exhilarating music of DJ Champion

Forget New Age music!  When the auroras cut loose above our heads, the atmosphere is anything but calm and serene, the way most videos tend to portray it. On the contrary! You want to dance, shout, rave. DJ Champion’s exhilarating music provides an electrifying backbeat for the greatest celestial lightshow there is.

An immersive visual experience

The planetarium’s magnificent dome is the perfect venue for experiencing this immersive show. But it comes with its own set of challenges: 360° videos of the Northern Lights are quite rare! So in March of 2015, a team from the Planétarium spent many frigid nights in the spectacular Northwest Territories, with a camera they designed especially to film the entire sky. As a result, aurōrae offers unique images of exceptional quality, which were captured under the very best conditions there are.

From the far north to Montreal