Iceland - Northern Lights Take 2

The Aurora Bourealis prediction for this night was excellent as far as clouds went. It was to be a clear night. The only problem was that it also meant it would be a chilly night as well. The question though was how active would the lights be? It was only a number 3 on a scale of 0 to 9, a moderate forecast.


We were waiting to go outside and set up the camera when a knock came on our door. The gentleman proprietor of the guesthouse was letting everyone know that the action had begun. I think it was about 10 PM. I didn't look at the time. I just grabbed my jacket and my camera and headed out the door looking back briefly to see if Bob was behind me. He was.


We tried to set up right by the cabin but there was too much light streaming out of the cabins around us and also a large hill behind us that was obscuring part of the action. We decided to walk to the end of the drive past the cabins and set up there. It was perfect except for the occasional car that went by on the road in front of us and the moon that was almost full shining brightly behind us. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic and the moon was hidden for a time behind some clouds.


I got a little more experimental with my settings but still found that the best shots seemed to be with an ISO of 400, F stop at 4.5, and shutter at 30 seconds.


Several people joined us with cameras on tripods. We stayed for about an hour and then gave up. The lights were not quite as good I thought as the first time and we were really getting cold. Still, I got a few good shots out of it and the experience of seeing them a second time.

The Big Dipper looked so much bigger in the sky over Iceland.