Eight real places to watch the sky
The Maplequarry instrument on the homepage models four flagship regions in depth. These eight are every real, worthwhile aurora destination covered on this site — open any one for a full guide: why it works, when to go, how to get there, and what else is worth doing while you wait for dark.
Yellowknife, NWT
The reference case — almost directly under the auroral oval, ~240 clear nights a year.
Churchill, MB
Reachable only by rail or air. Bone-dry Arctic air keeps winter skies exceptionally clear.
Whitehorse, YT
A real, walkable city. Needs a livelier geomagnetic night, but rewards patience.
Iqaluit, NU
Further east, more coastal cloud, and a viewing season stretching September to April.
Wood Buffalo National Park
44,741 km² of near-total darkness, straddling the NWT–Alberta border.
Jasper National Park
The easiest to reach — a 4-hour drive from Edmonton into real Rocky Mountain scenery.
Dawson City, YT
A former gold-rush boomtown sitting almost exactly inside the auroral oval.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL
Proof the aurora belt reaches Atlantic Canada — reachable by the Trans-Labrador Highway.
Not sure which one yet?
Yellowknife, Churchill, Whitehorse, and Iqaluit are modelled in the Maplequarry instrument itself — run your travel month against all four before you commit to a region.