Iceland's night sky from autumn to spring - Magical and colorful

While the summer days are endlessly bright, dark­ness returns to Iceland's nights in autumn. And what does that mean? The moon appears again like a bright Swiss cheese in the dark night sky, and no matter how much I bark, it won't come down, howl!!
But what might be much more inter­esting for you: the Northern Lights are returning, and it's a very special wauw!!

While the phenomenon is a regular occur­rence for Icelanders, for many trav­elers from further down on the globe, it's a unique spec­tacle. Esther and Pierre were also drawn to Iceland several times before finally settling here. Esther describes it like this:

The Northern Lights are magical, mystical, and unpre­dict­able. The enchanting figures and their move­ments in the night sky are never the same. Some­times they're subtle and serene, like a white-green veil; some­times they glow in various colors and dance wildly. And some­times they're so intense that it seems as if the entire sky is falling down on me in bright, glit­tering colors.

I'm not a theorist, but today I'll give it a try to explain everything about that glit­tering thing called the Northern Lights. Of course, you can go out and hope to see them. But it's like hunting wild ptar­migan; you have to be in the right place at the right time. And with a little know­ledge and prepar­a­tion, you can signi­fic­antly increase your chances.
PS: Of course, I've never hunted a ptar­migan, woof.

Require­ments

So... the Northern Lights appear when the sun is partic­u­larly active and farts - err, hurls all sorts of wild particles into space. These then hurtle towards the Earth, collide with molecules in the Earth's atmo­sphere, and release energy, which leads to the light show in the sky. Incid­ent­ally, the Northern Lights are also called the Polar Lights or Aurora Borealis, it's all the same thing.

To see the Northern Lights, a few things have to come together:

• Complete dark­ness

  In Iceland, you won't see the green glow in summer, as the sun provides bright­ness even in the middle of the night. The Northern Lights can be admired here between mid-August and mid-April.
  A full moon isn't good either, because it illu­min­ates the night. And because that's when the were­wolves are on the loose, howl!
  Arti­fi­cial light also ruins all the fun. The only thing that helps is getting out of the city.

• Clear skies

  When the clouds hang over you and pee on you, it's not worth leaving the warm basket. But be careful, in Iceland they some­times disap­pear faster than I can grab a treat.

• Wild solar storm

  As mentioned before, the big show starts when the sun spews a lot of particles towards Earth. The more the sun explodes, the more colorful and wild our sky becomes.

Fore­cast

The two-legged creatures often use the KP index to predict the like­li­hood of the Northern Lights. This is appar­ently a kind of clas­si­fic­a­tion of geomag­netic activity and is on a scale of 0-9. I have no idea what that means. All I know is that the higher the KP index, the more excited master and mistress become. Up to a 2, they show little reac­tion, but if the value is higher, the camera and tripod are ready, and from 4 or 5 onwards, they go out to look at the sky more often than I can pee. Unless it rains, that spoils their mood, and then I have to threaten to pee on the carpet to get them to go outside with me.

There are two easy ways to learn more about the like­li­hood of seeing the Northern Lights soon:

• App

  On those small, rect­an­gular things that two-legged creatures like to stare at and swipe on, there are various apps where you can find the current and predicted KP index, as well as plenty of other inform­a­tion about solar-related stuff. Some apps also offer weather fore­casts and the option to set an alarm when the prob­ab­ility increases. Three examples:

  - Aurora

  - Hello Aurora

  - Iceland at Night

• Website of the Icelandic Meteor­o­lo­gical Office

  In addi­tion to the weather fore­cast, you can also find the predicted KP index here. There are also details about sunrise and sunset, as well as the phase of the moon.

  https://en.vedur.is/weather/fore­casts/aurora

But a prom­ising fore­cast with a high KP index is no guar­antee of a color­fully dancing sky, and conversely, a truly impressive spec­tacle can some­times occur despite low values. Also, the weather doesn't always do what the weathermen predict, so looking outside is the only truly reli­able option.

Photo­graphy

When everything falls into place and the show begins, it's of course great to capture the Northern Lights in photos. I'm more suited to posing in front of the camera lens than pressing buttons behind it. But I've learned a few helpful things nonethe­less.

• Tripod

  And don't lick it, it'll blur everything.

• Wide-angle lens

  This will allow you to capture a lot of sky and colorful spec­tacle.

• Manual mode

  Auto­matic mode is usually a bit over­whelmed by the splendor of the Northern Lights.

• Aper­ture

  Open it as wide as possible. Some­thing like 2.8 or, even better, 1.8. The larger the aper­ture, the more light. More light = more Northern Lights!

• Shutter speed

  Play around with it! For very strong aurora, one second might be enough, but usually 3-5 seconds are more appro­priate, and for weaker intensity, try 10 seconds or even more.

• ISO value

  The higher the ISO value, the more light you capture, but too high a value will result in noise in your images. The ideal value depends heavily on your camera and the strength of the Northern Lights. It's best to exper­i­ment with different values.

• Manual focus

  For once, don't focus on your dog, but on the stars or at infinity.

• Self-timer or remote shutter release

  So you don't blur the image while you tap the camera with your paws.

• RAW format

  Best if you want to tinker with it later on your computer.

• Flash­light

  If you want to look partic­u­larly profes­sional, then use a head­lamp with red light. With white light, your eyes always need a while to adjust to the dark­ness after turning it off. This doesn't happen with red light.

• Warm clothing

  Unless you have fur as fluffy as mine.

If all of this is way too complic­ated for you or you don't have the equip­ment, just take your phone, point it up, and shoot in night mode. You can still get some great pictures that way. It's prob­ably enough to show off on Instagram or in a family chat.

The perfect place

My last (completely altru­istic) tip: The Mystic Light Lodge is a partic­u­larly good place to spot the Northern Lights. It's far away from all the bright, blinking lights of the human world. Dark­ness is guar­an­teed - unless the sun is shining or the moon is full. And when the aurora starts glowing, you don't even have to go out into the cold! Thanks to the huge roof window and the thick panor­amic windows, you can enjoy the show from the comfort of your cozy bed. Not only will the sky light up, but your eyes will too.

I hope this inform­a­tion helps you exper­i­ence the Northern Lights your­self. I'm keeping my paw crossed for you! Don't forget, some­times you get unlucky and nothing lights up, and even the best prepar­a­tion doesn't help. But I advise you not to give up and keep going on the hunt. I can assure you, it's worth it. My wau-word of honor

Sif
Head of Enter­tain­ment
Mystic Light Lodge