Northern Lights in Mosfellsheiði

For the second day in a row, I was given the task to go out and hunt the Northern Lights, and for the second day in a row, I was quite fearful of the tour’s outcome. Just like the day before, Solar activity and Weather forecast looked blight at best, and while on Tuesday we managed, I still don’t know how, to find the Aurora, I still wasn’t certain we would be able to do so on Wednesday.

Anyway, we picked up our guests for Thingholt Hotel and this time, everyone showed up! Generally there’re always a couple people who get lost, get stolen by another company and so on, but not this time! Once everyone was set up, we drove East, towards Þingvellir.

It immediately became clear that the weather was a good dal better than expected so just a little bit after leaving the city lights, we turned unto a tinier country road to have a look at the sky: it was completely clear: not a cloud! There was also no moon to be seen so you could really see numerous stars!

We stayed there for a little while, it was quite pleasant and there was no wind whatsoever, but no Northern Lights either! I helped out people to set up their camera while we were waiting but after maybe half-an hour, we decided to drive further.

We continued until the North-Eastern side of the Þingvellir Lake where we stopped at a kiosk kinda-thingie…It wasn’t the best of places though as 6 busses from other companies were already stationed there. We nevertheless took the opportunity to grab something warm to drink and wait to see if something might be happening. Some of our guests also showed me pictures they had taken where you could see a little bit of a greenish hue…but sadly nothing that could be seen with the naked eye.

We then proceeded to drive further, actually towards Reykjavík. It was almost eleven and I was fearing that we would end up seeing nothing at all. We nevertheless tried one last spot just a couple kilometers outside the city, just to see, and as the doors of the bus opened we were greeted by …guess what…The Northern Lights:

That one was a real miracle, just as most (including me), had lost hope, the Aurora appeared, flashing through the skies! And it was quite a powerful one, moving quite fast and taking up a huge chunk of the heavens:

We were all busy taking pictures but time to time, a car or two drove by, resulting in rather comical pictures:

Also I am quite proud to say that I managed to get not one, but two pictures of a comet thrusting through the Northern Lights! It’s not that common and I actually hadn’t realized it on the spot but I think the pictures look quite neat:

All in all, last night was a real miracle! Up until the last minute, the Aurora was hiding herself but we finally managed, beating all odds, to turn this relatively hopeless tour into a trek of legend!