If I told you, I went on Aurora hunting trip in Iceland all the way from Dubai, does that sound thrilling? Well, then it was! One of the best experiences in my life, especially because northern lights has such a special place in my heart.
When I was in 8th grade in school, I took part in inter-school astronomy competition and I was given concession from attending classes to hang out in the school library and prepare for the competition and to bring the award to the school. This was a pre-google era when you had to read books to gather knowledge and information. For a book-lover like me, it was almost like a feast! I used to spend hours sitting in the library going through books which were not touched for years all related to astronomy, space science, and astrophysics. One afternoon I opened a book and wow, on the first page, there was that ethereal photo of Aurora Borealis! I was so fascinated by the phenomenon that I decided the same day that I have to travel far North someday in my life and see these dancing northern lights in front of my own eyes! For the record, I lost the first award on a question related to Tunguska event (a historic meteor strike in Russia) and got second place in the competition.
So when I saw the Northern Lights last week, I practically danced and jumped and felt like that same schoolgirl in 8th grade!
Northern Lights Facts
I would like to tell you few things which nobody tells you about Northern Lights. For sighting you can not depend on Northern lights forecast only there are numerous factors affecting your chances of seeing them that makes them very unpredictable. You might see less colorful lights with naked eyes but your camera can capture the full glory! Don’t even waste your time to drive on your own and look out for northern lights if it’s the first time for you, Those northern lights can look similar to clouds for first-timers, especially if it’s overcast.
You need an expert to locate northern lights in the sky and find a place on the ground from where you can see them. I am happy to share information about an expert I found in Iceland, just promise me you will keep our little secret!
I kept on checking Northern lights forecast before a few days of my trip. It’s always advisable to go on northern lights tours at the start of your trip so that if you can’t see them, these tours let you come one more time without charging you. Also if you really want to see Aurora Borealis, you should be in Aurora Borealis location for at least a week, because northern lights activity is high for 3-4 days with a gap of 2-3 days. Better to be there for the complete cycle to increase your chances of seeing northern lights.
My Northern Lights Experience
The day I got to see Northern lights, it was overcast, full moon, raining that night and Aurora Borealis KP level was predicted 5 by a few northern lights apps. KP Index is a global geomagnetic storm index based on 3-hour measurement of K indices. Basically, in simple words, it shows the probability of seeing northern lights in the sky that night. But all thanks to Runar from Time Tours, I could still see these captivating lights!
Our trip started around 10.30-11 pm, Runar was looking at different websites for reference and live streaming drove out of Reykjavik, looking for gaps in cloud cover. At first stop on the southern side, near the sea, he explained and helped us out with our camera for Northern Lights photography. We waited for a while but clouds started gathering and even it started raining, so we drove off from there to another location. This way we drove in many diff rent directions, which I think only Runar remembers. On 3rd or 4th stop we saw northern lights for the first time in between cloud cover, Very faint green, almost cloud color. Then we even located Aurora Borealis band right on top of our heads. Some successful photos and northern lights game of appearing and disappearing, the cloud cover again started blocking the view.
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Later Runar took us to other location on a hunt of northern lights, we even joined him in the hunt looking out of the window in the sky. It’s not an easy job, you have to clearly know how northern lights look. Then we found them, stopped, some photos again, this went on for a few hours. At one point, we got to see northern lights dance, it was mesmerizing! No words to explain that for sure. I felt so lucky to see them, but kind of craving for more. Someone in our tour group complained about their color not as green as he expected. But when Nature shows it’s wonder I don’t think we are in a place to do a quality check, I don’t know how to get disappointed when you are seeing nature’s magic in totally difficult conditions. I mean most of the tour operators already canceled the tours that day sighting adverse conditions like overcast and rains. So it explains why I highly recommend Time Tours! Another great part is, Runar actually explains you all the technical stuff behind Northern lights, if you have older kids you should definitely take them on this tour it’s not just fun but very educative too, just be prepared to sleep really late and keep your next day’s itinerary relaxed. I reached back at around 2.30 am.
I pre-booked the tour for my first night in Iceland, but because of low KP index I even postponed it a few times, but Time tours happily accommodated all my requests. They even take your photos on a background of northern lights, if you fancy it. Then they will send you all the photos taken by them on the same night through emails. So don’t worry much about northern lights photos, you can choose to just enjoy them and lock the glory in your memory box.
What are Northern Lights?
Auroras are basically caused by the interaction of solar wind with Earth’s magnetosphere. When the charged particles from the sun’s corona strike atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, they excite those atoms, During the process with which they return to their normal state, they emit this excess energy in the form of visible photons. The aurora often appears as curtains of lights, but they can also be arcs or spirals, often following lines of force in Earth’s magnetic field. Most are green in color but sometimes you’ll see a hint of pink, and strong displays might also have red, violet and white colors.
One more funny thing I would like to specifically mention, I met quite a lot of Australians during my time in Iceland, who wanted to see northern lights and when I asked them have they seen southern lights? Most of them didn’t even know that something like this exists. Southern lights are known as Aurora Australis. It has been observed that the northern and southern auroras very closely mirror each other at any given moment.
Preparation for Northern Lights Tours
Here are a few things I would like to mention, take a good number of layers of warm clothes with you, it can get pretty cold at night that too somewhere outside the city. Particularly hand gloves are very useful. Pack your raincoats and rain cover for cameras. If you plan to do Aurora Borealis photography taking tripod is must and also keep the extra battery, if you are spending a day taking photos. I carried extra camera battery and mobile charger as batteries drain fast in colder weather.
Don’t forget to be responsible during all northern lights excitement. Carry your reusable water bottle and a thermos or coffee mug filled with hot chocolate. You will thank me later. When you get back in the car, you can sip on your hot chocolate and relax. Better to carry some snacks as well, I don’t know was that excitement or what but I was hungry even after dinner and many people were munching. While seeing northern lights and taking photos, please stay away from roads, the number of accidents is increasing. There is a high chance you can forget where you are standing when the magic will start in the sky. Please don’t throw any garbage in the wild. When you are seeing prettiest things in the sky, don’t forget beauty on the land though it might look barren in Iceland and but don’t spoil it in any way. And lastly please don’t judge the beauty of Aurora Borealis, just because you paid for the trip. It’s not an ordinary show, for which you can buy tickets and criticize later. Let’s not be that materialistic and consumerism oriented that we can’t even enjoy the wonders of Nature!
There are some northern lights boat tours as well if you want to try them and when conditions are favorable you can even see Aurora Borealis from Reykjavik city! The Grotta lighthouse located the far end of the city is one of the great locations to avoid light pollution.
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After our heart was content with basking in the Northen lights on tour with Time tours, we even got to see a full semi-circle rainbow in the moonlight! I never even imagined before that you can even see rainbows at night! God was definitely in one of his best moods when he was creating Iceland!
