Straw Poll: Totality vs Aurora

[CAAD9]

Dear IceinSpace Community,

To those who have seen both - what is more amazing or mind blowing to see: Totality or an Aurora??

Please tell me which one, and I hope you say why.

Recently my (extended) family and I had an opportunity to see the amazing solar eclipse in Cairns. My wife and I still can't get over how beautiful, other worldly (insert copious superlatives that do not do it justice here) experience it was.

Anyways, I have always had 3 wonders of nature I wanted to see:
1) Flowing Lava - tick, Hawaii 2010, got a bit to close in retrospect, but wow!!! Terra firma created right before your eyes!
2) Total Solar Eclipse (tick, Cairns 2012 - planing Oregon 2017, WA 2020 & 2028 - can't wait)
3) Aurora - (boo, cross - failed on a trans-arctic flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt and failed when in Banff in 2007. Too low a latitude I guess.)

Hope to hear from you.

[slt]

Definitely totality, and the ethereal light a minute or so before and after.

Saw the aurora this year for the first time too, in Iceland (check your 2013 IIS calendar, April I think ;)). Very impressive and spine-tingling too, but after seeing the TSE, it's definitely 2nd place. (And seeing it from a plane doesn't count, believe me!)

Missed volcanic eruptions twice by only a couple of months, Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 and Rabaul in 1994 (though that one was probably a good one to miss :eyepop:).

[JB80]

I haven't seen either. :(

For some reason though I imagine an aurora would be more inspiring but it'd have to be a proper overhead display and not just a faint glow in the distance.

Lava is another one I want to see too, we nearly went to Etna and Stromboli for the Venus transit but decided on Crete and Santorini instead. Technically Santorini is still geo active but there is no lava there.

[AstralTraveller]

TSE by a country mile. After watching the aurora for a hour or so I went to bed. I could watch totality all day (if only...).

BTW re: lava. Did you know that volcanologists wear boots with the soles stitched on - not glued. Glue can go soft and fail when walking on hot rocks (as in near lava) and so leave one in a very difficult position. Apparently it has happened.

[Paul Haese]

Been to three TSE's, that ought to say which I think it better. I can go to the poles at any time to see an Aurora, eclipses are a little rarer.

[Lester]

This is a bit like asking what is your favorite dish of food, as we all have differing tastes; and that is fine. I go for aurora because of the differing types, shapes and colours. I have seen a total solar eclipse and although a moment to remember it is aurora for me. All the best.

[pluto]

I just saw the TSE in Port Douglas and I'm heading to Norway for the Aurora in February. I can't wait for the Aurora but I can't imagine it being as cool as totality :D

[RickS]

Both were great but TSE trumps Aurora for me. The Aurora is more forgiving when it comes to photography though ;)