The Frequent Flyer: Aurora Hunting

Our main reason for our mini Iceland getaway was to seek out the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, after  checking the weather forecast religiously the week before we were due to leave and seeing nothing but rain and snow I wasn't expecting to see them at all but after just a few hours in Iceland and a short bus ride out of the city we got lucky and experienced one of the most amazing displays on record!

At first it can be difficult to see the Aurora, with the naked eye we could make out a more defnined band of white in the sky and slowly a greenish mist, however after taking a long exposure photo we could see that there were colours in the sky, as we were only using a point-and-click we only saw the basics but other people with better quality cameras were getting all kinds of brighter different shades of red, pink,and green.

After standing outside (in sub zero temperatures) staring at the greenish mist in the sky which was beginning to fade we made our way back to the bus a little disappointed that that was all we managed to see but then as we were driving back to Reykjavik the sky seemed to explode and well defined colourful streak appeared all over the sky moving and dancing just like you see in the movies!

There are no words for me to express just how amazing it was seeing them in real life, the sky just seemed to explode and light up with colour and it was so beautiful I even shed a tear. A lot of people go to Iceland with the intention of seeing the Northern Lights and don't see them at all but we saw them three nights in a row although the first night was definitely the brightest and most spectacular.

I feel exceptionally lucky to have had the experiences that I had in Iceland they are definitely something I will never forget and I'll hold close to my heart for the rest of my life. Iceland is such a beautiful and wondrous island that I think everyone should visit at least once in their lives, I've only been back a couple weeks but I miss it so much and would love so much to visit there again.

Stars & Snowflakes

Cate

xoxo

Here are a couple of my favourite videos of the Aurora Borealis just to give you an idea of what we saw

Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Related Links

♥ Photos on Flickr