Northern Lights and Moon Rise

The other day I got a call from my boss…and I guess you know what happened next. Yes, I had been booked for a Northern Lights tour! I hadn’t been called for over a week since the four rather good days we had in the beginning of the month.

This time, it looked like the Solar Activity was going to be quite okay but that the Weather might be a problem (well, it’s like always a problem if you ask me). But this time I was given the task of guiding a group in a mini-bus and it sounded all quite nice!

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We started the tour at about nine and picked up our guests at their various hotels and guesthouses and then headed south. We passed the mountainous area of Bláfjöll and almost reached the South-Coast when we noticed the company’s other mini-bus stopping by the side of the road.

Northern Lights were starting! 

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Sure, the Lights were not really strong, and it took a bit of time for our eyes to get used to them, but they were nevertheless here, quietly hovering over the clouds.

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Most people quickly went back to the bus, maybe because it was freezing cold and strong wind was constantly blowing? I have no idea, but regardless, we also had the chance, just a little while later, to experience something rather mighty: The rise of the moon! At the beginning, I thought that the strong golden light on the horizon was some kind of light pollution of some sorts but as the light moved higher we actually all realized that it was the moon that was rising, emitting rather strong rays of lights and progressively lighting up the landscape. That was pretty awesome I have to say:

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Shortly thereafter we all got surprised as the Northern Lights came back, much stronger than before! Everyone jumped out of the bus and we watched the magnificent display for a couple of minutes, until the clouds swallowed all of it:

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All frost-bitten but happy, we then agreed to drive back to town.  At that point, my camera had died because of insufficiently-charged batteries but I really thought that this wasn’t that much of a problem considering that I still had managed to take some pretty neat shots. How wrong was I! Just minutes upon entering Reykjavík, the Northern Lights came back once more, this time real real strong and we pulled the bus over in order to watch the display:

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Again, my camera had sadly died but I managed to snatch one guest’s and started shooting. I maybe should have tried to focus the picture better but this really doesn’t matter that much as everyone was really crazy just to see such a strong Aurora! All in all, it had been quite a blast, a rather cold one, but it was surely all worth it!