Iceland Northern Lights
Last night at about 1 AM, Kate and I were treated to a gorgeous display of northern lights. It had been our hope that we might see them when we planned this trip, but with the cloud cover we had experienced, we had not been optimistic.
With the skies periodically being clear as evening fell, I had checked the Iceland aurora forecast. It had given a value of 3 on a 0 to 9 scale, the bottom of the moderate range, and had indicated that there would be intermittent periods of clear skies mixed with cloud cover. Throughout the evening, I checked outside, searching for northern lights, but to no avail. Kate and headed to bed around 11, but I had difficulty falling asleep. After tossing and turning for half an hour, I decided to head downstairs to read. Here is a photo I took about midnight. As you can see, no northern lights.
Just before 1 AM, as I was heading to bed, I popped my head outside and thought I saw the northern lights to the west. I went to the room to get warm clothes. Once outside and able to look north, it was clear that the aurora was on display. I zipped back inside and woke Kate so that we could both watch together.
All of these photos were taken with my iPhone. Cell phones now take incredible night photographs. They take hundreds of photos over 2 or 3 seconds, then combine them into one image. These images from my cell phone are more clear in all regards than what we could see with our own eyes.
Last night was the full moon, so the landscape was quite illuminated. Nonetheless, these photos make it seem like it is almost daylight out.
Similarly, the intensity of the green in these photos is definitely stronger than what our eyes took in, but the aurora was still very clear.
One thing that these images do not capture is the way that the lights danced around, shifting, swirling, brightening and fading. It was very dynamic, not at all like the northern lights we were barely able to see in Massachusetts earlier this year. Those were more like a broad brush of color rather than a dancing light display.
Finally, after about half an hour, we could see a bank of clouds coming towards us from over the mountains. This, combined with the cold, led us to decide that it was time to head back into the inn and go to sleep.