I'm debating paying to have them put on, cause it's colder then heck outside, but I hate paying for something I can do myself. As for the northern lights, you're supposed to be able to see them here, but I haven't seen them yet. I check every night, and we've gone out on the nights the computer says it's supposed to be active, but...nothing. Everyone says we will, but it's kind of a joke now. Up in Fairbanks, your supposed to be able to see them 250 nights a year or something like that, if it's clear. Here's a couple of cool websites
http://www.spacew.com/www/aurora.html and
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/cgi-bin/predict.cgi.