I follow a bunch of folks in Iceland and Norway, etc. The videos and pics they post of aurora are amazing. Often they will try to do side by side using less enhanced pics and it can be quite noticable, but the "naked eye" ones are still jaw dropping.
Their written descriptions tell me that they are often seeing more than the greenish swirls depending on where they are, how dark it is, the strength of the event, etc.
I've only ever seen it fainly one time back in the 1980s in Lowell of all places.