Northern Lights in Iceland

When we first starting talking about taking a vacation to Iceland, the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights immediately jumped out as a main attraction. Going into the trip, we were so hopeful we would get to see the lights, and about halfway through, we were very fortunate to get to see them! We ended up seeing the Northern Lights three nights in a row. It was incredible!

Northern Lights Outside of Borgarnes

The afternoon that we checked into our house outside of Borgarnes, Scott and I had a good feeling about our chances to see the Northern Lights. We got to see our first sunset of the trip, which meant the skies were clear, and we were staying well outside of town with almost no ambient light. After the kids went to bed, we started checking the sky every few minutes, and finally we saw what looked like low fast moving clouds. It took a couple attempts with our low light photography apps, but eventually we captured images of some faint green streaks in the sky. This was exciting, but not at the level of activity we expected. We continued checking the sky and then about an hour later, the Northern Lights were clearly visible! We could see a distinct bright green arc streaking across the sky, perfectly positioned above the dark field behind our house. It was incredible!! The lights danced around, fading and lighting back up. I couldn’t believe we were actually seeing this magical sight with our naked eyes!

The next afternoon was not as clear, some patchy clouds, but that didn’t stop us from keeping a lookout. All you need is the lights to appear in the perfect gap in the clouds. This night we took advantage of the huge hot tub at our house. It had been a very stressful day, and soaking in the hot tub after the kids went to bed was the perfect way to wind down. The icing on the cake was when the lights appeared again! Watching the Northern Lights as we relaxed in the hot tub was another incredible memory. How lucky were we that this was our reality that night? Eventually we not able to resist the urge to attempt more pictures of the lights and we quickly dried off and bundled up. The lights were different this night; instead of a steady arc over the landscape, the lights were more like a fog with streaks shooting upward. The lights were more faint to the naked eye and also much less consistent. Moments of bright patches would quickly fade and then other areas would begin to glow. The scattered clouds added some interesting features in the pictures, and we were also able to capture some stars that night, too.

Our last night in Borgarnes was another mostly clear night, just a few scattered clouds, and to our delight, the aurora did not let us down! Three nights in a row with the Northern Lights right above our house! This night was similar to the previous, not quite as bright to the naked eye and with patchy lights that were streaking upward. I even managed to get some pictures from the kitchen table when I was too frozen to stay outside.

Looking back, I still cannot believe our good fortune. Some people travel to Iceland specifically to hunt the Northern Lights and have no luck. We planned our trip to give ourselves a good chance to see them, but we were still limited by the nature of travel with young kids. Because seeing the lights is not a given, we did a bunch of up front research to optimize our chances, and I want to pass along the info that we learned and what helped our success.

When to see the Northern Lights

We knew that the Northern Lights were not visible daily, so we did a little bit of research to see how we could maximize our chances to catch a glimpse. Turns out that we ended up having to strike a balance between the peak tourism season and the peak Northern Lights visibility. The longer daylight hours in the summer rule out chances to see them in the summer months, but that is the also the time of year with the best weather conditions, when the puffins are there, and when the longer daylight hours let you fit more into one day. The longer nights in the winter mean a greater possibility of catching the lights, but the weather can be extremely cold, road conditions can be dangerous, and the daytime hours are very short.

I did, however, read that aurora activity can be the most active around the equinoxes, so ~March and ~October. So we decided that October was a good a sweet spot for us. The daylight hours would be plenty for us (kids need decent bedtimes anyway), the weather would still be manageable, and travel in early October would mean road conditions are still good.

Weather and the Northern Lights

One of the main factors in seeing the Northern Lights is the weather. Cloud coverage makes or breaks your chance to see the lights. There might be intense auroral activity right above you, but if there is a thick blanket of clouds, you won’t see a thing. This was a problem for us during the first four nights of our trip. The weather was rainy most of each day, and there were cloudy skies each of those nights. Completely in denial, we still would step outside, just hoping for a sighting. Looking back, during those nights, we were also staying in decent sized towns, so the ambient light was pretty bright. This would have impacted our view as well, dulling the brightness of any Northern Lights.

Tracking the Northern Lights

Because stepping outside and looking at the sky is not always the most effective was of finding the Northern Lights, there are several websites you can visit that predict auroral activity, and the “Aurora” app was also helpful.

This website shows a map of the Northern Lights and predict the Kp levels.

Kp factor is a measurement that predicts the intensity of the lights. It ranges from 0 to 10. The first night we saw the lights, the Kp was a 3, and the next two nights, the Kp was a 2. Because I was curious, I read that the images with magenta and purple are typical for a night with Kp around 4-6. And then I was extra curious about higher Kp levels, and it seems that those only occur during solar storm type events. I found some images from 2009 of a solar storm and nothing more recent (just a quick google, not intense research), so these events are probably uncommon. I did also read at one point that we are in a lull of solar activity that is predicted to last a few more years, so I guess the timing of those high Kp images make sense.

Northern Lights to the Naked Eye

You know all of those amazing photos you have probably seen of the Northern Lights? Ones with green streaks snaking through the sky? Green arches with bursts of orange and yellow and maybe pink? One of the surprises that we learned in our hunt for the Northern Lights was that the lights don’t look like that to the naked eye. The human eye cannot pick up those amazing colors, but our cameras can! This was a tough pill to swallow but we were reassured that a Northern Light sighting would still be spectacular.

Our friends that visited Iceland a month before us were able to see the lights, and they confirmed that the lights in person are not as dramatic as photos would indicate. They described the lights as greenish-white, almost cloud-like. This was actually very helpful because now we had an idea of what to look for. Apparently it is not unusual for people to see the lights in person and not even realize it!

After seeing the Northern Lights, I think this description is accurate. Occasionally the aurora would brighten into a true green (especially that first night where we saw bright green arches through the sky), but mostly it looked like a greenish cloud. You could see the streaks moving through the sky similar to cloud behavior, but the movement was subtlety different. On the weaker activity nights, I can see how someone could mistake the lights for haze or small clouds.

Amateur Photography

Taking pictures of the Northern Lights turned out to be a crash course in amateur low light photography. When I say amateur, I am talking about using my iPhone and a few relatively cheap accessories. We do have a nice DSLR camera at home, but neither of us have mastered it enough to carry it along on trips when we are also juggling the kids. The absolute best we can do at times is whip out our phones (thank you for the camera shortcut on the lock screen!) and snap a couple quick pictures before the moment has passed. So Northern Light iPhone photography it would be.

The difficulty with taking pictures of the Northern Lights is that the lights are not bright enough for standard shutter speed to pick them up. There are two issues that need to be addressed. First, the camera settings need to be adjusted specifically for low light, meaning a long shutter speed. (And maybe some other more technical things that I did not delve into.) I tried two different apps, bought from the AppStore, Northern Lights Photo Taker and NightCap Camera. Both were inexpensive, under $5. I’m one of those people that hate paying for apps, but I figured this was one of those occasions well worth the expense. I wasn’t able to get the Northern Lights Photo Taker app to work for me, so all of our pictures are from NightCap. This app even had the feature of a built in delay; there was a few second delay from pressing the button to take the picture and when the camera would start. This was to remove any of the “wobble” caused from hitting the button itself.

The second issue is that the camera needs to be perfectly still to take long exposure images. We bought a cheap adjustable tripod specifically for this. (Well, I also thought we might want to use it at some of the other sights on the trip to get fun pictures of all four of us, but ha! That never happened.) This is the one we bought and it has come in handy beyond the trip. We use it at home for pictures of the four of us, and it has been fun for group pictures on other trips. Propping up the phone against something as an improvised tripod would probably work also, but you would be limited to the angles and viewpoints based on what you can find to use.

Northern Lights and Kids

Before the trip, whenever we discussed our chances of seeing the lights, we innocently said that if we knew auroral activity was happening but we were under cloud cover, we would just transfer the kids to the car and drive somewhere for a viewing opportunity. HA! Wake up those kids in the middle of the night after a busy day and with another packed day ahead of us?? Wow, the naivety in that plan is astonishing now. It quickly became clear that would not be an option. Truly, the idea of getting MYSELF into a car to drive somewhere most nights sounded ridiculous. So this is another reason we are so thankful that we were able to see the lights. The fact that we got to see them from our house, is pure dumb luck, and we are very aware of how fortunate we were.

For older kids, waking them up might be worth it, depending on their age and the brightness of the lights. Our kids were so young that there was almost no chance that waking them up would be worth it. Even with the bright green streaks we saw the first night, I am not sure J would have appreciated it. Certainly not enough to be worth ruining a deep sleep. Waking up A was totally out of the question. She loves her sleep and absolutely was too young to care. I hope that one day our travels will allow us to see the Northern Lights again. It was amazing, and I would love for our kids to experience it too (just when they are old enough to understand!).