How we found the Northern Lights in Iceland [Part 5]

Seeing and capturing the Northern Lights has been a dream of mine for a very long time. Since Iceland is so very north, during the winter season it's relatively common to see them. Of course we were there during autumn, but we had general information that the season of the Northern Lights was just starting. In order to capture them you need two things: luck and clear skies. Luck would be the predominant factor. 

It's good to check online before you head out into the night. The best site would be http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ . It's the official weather site from Iceland and if you click on the link you can see the forecast for Aurora Borealis. You have to look out for the white parts of the map. Those are clear skies. Next to the map, on the site, you will see the Aurora forecast in numbers. They go from 0 to 9. Naturally the higher the number the bigger the chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

This is only a part of our big travel series to Iceland

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When we left from our apartment, it was a 3 on the scale, so our expectations were low, but since we had clear skies we decided to take a chance. As we approached the outskirts of Akureyri, we saw some change in the sky. It was like a shimmer in the distance. We actually debated if it was the aurora, since it wasn't that green in the beginning. We stopped at a entrance to a small church. I set up my tripod and we gazed into the starry night.

The stars were abundant, and being so far up north, you could see a lot of star formations that I usually don't get to see that detailed back home. I made some long exposure shots of the stars circling around us, and then of the sky itself. The green Northern Lights were captured, but unfortunately not that intense. I was still happy. It was a unique experience.

Here is the exact location from which we saw the Northern Lights:



We returned back to the city. I took one shot from the car of Akureyri, reflected in the fjord. We prepared our things, ready to head out the next morning.

The Next Morning

We left Akureyri relatively early in the morning. It was a cold morning. This town was the most northern part of our road trip. I will talk about the continuation of our road trip from that fourth day in Iceland in the next post, because I want to linger on the location we saw the Northern Lights from the night before. Since we saw some unusual looking houses in the landscape, we were curious to see what that place looked like in the light of day. So we drove back out.

The landscapes were picture perfect. The small church had a lovely looking graveyard, with trees coming out of the graves, a sight we would see in Reykjavik as well.

We were parked next to the Laufas Museum. The old rectory at Laufas is considered to be the prototype of the Icelandic architecture (many gables side by side), but much larger than most other such complexes. Usually, between 20 and 30 people lived at Laufas because many farmhands were needed to reap the benefits of the farm, such as the haymaking, the fishing in the river and the collection of eiderdown along the coastline.

It was time to continue our road trip. We had something very special planned for this day: the Myvatn Nature Baths, which is a lagoon of hot water. We were about to swim in hot water in 4 degree Celsius weather. We also saw another huge waterfall and many unique and alien like landscapes. As I said, the North of Iceland is strange and mysterious. But more on that in the upcoming parts.

End of Part Five

To be continued...

Where I'm Lining To