[pipdig_banner image=”https://martinemakesmemories.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_9829-2.jpg” pipdig_banner parallax=”yes”]
Is the Northern Lights high on your bucket list? Then combine a beautiful roundtrip with a Northern Lights tour in Iceland. If you travel in the right season, you have a good chance of spotting the Northern Lights. Make sure you are well prepared for this. We will tell you what the best season is, what the best places are, if a tour is worth it and how you can capture the Northern Lights on your camera. Read on quick!
THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
The Northern Lights are also called Aurora Borealis. This magical phenomenon can be spotted when eruptions take place on the sun and particles from it float towards the earth. These particles come into contact with gases in the atmosphere, creating an electric field. For us this can be seen in the starry sky in the form of waves that slowly dance through the sky.
The most famous color is green. We also seen purple, blue and white colours in the Aurora Borealis or a combination of all colours. It seems like the sky is dancing.
BEST SEASON
The Northern Lights season runs from September to March. If you want to spot it, it must be really dark. This is the reason that you will not spot it in the summer months, as the days are long with many hours of light. It does not mean that you will see the Northern Lights everyday in the winter season. For this the sky must be clear. During our trip at the end of September we spotted the Northern Lights for 4 evenings. There are several apps / sites that have the prediction pretty good.
GOOD FORECAST APPS
Many locals recommended this website to us: https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/. From the number 3 you have a good chance of spotting the Northern Lights. Our forecast was 3 on the first night, 6 on the second and third night, which is very high and also 3 on the fourth night. On the evening with forecast 3 we have already been able to see the Northern Lights very clearly and beautifully. On the evenings with prediction 6 it was a lot brighter and more colourful. The ”show” also lasted longer.
At home, we already checked the apps. 2 weeks prior to the trip was a high chance of the Northern Lights these evenings. In the end the app was completely correct!
TOUR OR NO TOUR
Many organizations offer a Northern Lights tour. They will take you to a dark place where you can admire the Northern Lights beautifully. If you ask us, a waste of money. We recommend 100% to have your own car at your disposal. If you have more time, we also recommend booking a cottage in the middle of nature outside Reykjavik. How nice is it to spot the Northern Lights on your veranda!? We have experienced that the Northern Lights slowly walk in and that you sometimes have to be patient. We were lucky several times that we stayed in a dark place to get a cup of tea in between or to warm up inside with a blanket in front of the window, before show started.
Are you not staying in the middle of the nature and do you have a rental car at your disposal? Keep an eye on the forecast app and look for a dark place around 9:30 PM.
HOW DO YOU CAPTURE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The time has finally come. The Northern Lights can be seen! Beautiful to observe with your eyes, but nothing can be seen on the camera if you do not have the correct settings. So prepare well! We share step by step the settings for your camera (SLR / compact camera) so you can photograph the Northern Lights:
– Make sure that the camera mode is set to Manual, so that you can adjust the settings yourself
– Set the shutter speed to 5-15 seconds. Play with this a bit
– The ISO value prevents noise in the photo. It must be between 200-1600
– The aperture should be as low as possible. If you also want to have yourself in the picture, set the aperture to around 5.6
– Provide stability with a tripod
Know your settingss before the trip or during the day / en route. It is a shame if you have to miss the spectacle because you are busy in the dark looking for the right settings to capture the Northern Lights.
