64° N

Among the items on my bucket list is to see the northern lights, a fairly rare event from Maryland’s latitude. The last significant event around here was in the fall of 2001, but I was sadly unaware that it was happening. I still remember my disappointment the next morning when my boss exclaimed “Wow, did you see that sky last night!?”

With COVID vaccines making it reasonable to travel again I began thinking where my wife and I might go to perhaps witness the aurora. One logical approach was to investigate a tour with that objective such as those offered by Sky & Telescope. They were conducting a trip to Iceland in the fall of 2021 and the itinerary looked very nice – if you’re big into astronomy. My wife has a natural curiosity about the night sky but is hardly an aficionado of the heavens, so planning our own expedition where we could explore items of interest and possibly catch a northern lights display in the evening seemed ideal.

At 64° N in latitude the island nation of Iceland is certainly far north enough to regularly witness auroral displays. A little research also uncovered that October was not simply a random month selected by the official tour, but being near the equinox it has a better chance of seeing a display. It basically has to do with the favorable presentation of the magnetic field lines in interacting with the solar wind as discussed in the October 2021 issue of S&T.

We arrived quite early on the morning of October 4^th and were greeted by a taste of Icelandic weather – a very blustery, rainy, and cold dawn, quite a rude change from our departure the prior evening with temps in mid-seventies. We made our way to the Northern Lights Inn where we would be staying for the week and grabbed a quick nap. That afternoon we explored the capital city of Reykjavik, roughly 25 miles away.

That first evening the skies were partly cloudy with roughly 50% of the sky being obscured at any one time. The wind in Iceland is seemingly perpetual and vigorous, so it was not exactly pleasant to step outside for any length of time. Being some 24 degrees more northerly in latitude I was immediately struck by the height of the Big Dipper which was near its anti-culmination point due north. From Towson it is so low to the horizon I lose sight of it, but here it was skimming above the rooftop with ease. Polaris had ascended noticeably higher and, while it was only midnight, Jupiter was already drawing close to the horizon in the southeast. I had anticipated in this little coastal town of Grindavik that the skies would be quite dark, and while the Milky Way was plainly visible it was not nearly as robust as I was expecting. I scanned the northern skies for any signs of the ethereal emerald glow without success, so I turned in with hopes that we’d get an aurora wake-up call from the inn keeper.

The next day we toured the "Golden Circle" and visited some spectacular scenery. Þingvellir National Park showcases the mid-Atlantic rift where the American and European plates meet (one of the few places where it lies above sea level). There was also the majestic Gullfoss water falls - we only wish we had more time to linger there.

On the ride back to the inn I was checking weather and aurora potential for the evening. The skies were predicted to be partly cloudy with (as usual) brisk winds, the KP index was around 3, a slight potential for auroral activity. A little before midnight I went out with camera in hand in search of Northern lights. It was mostly clear with the light dome from Reykjavik visible in the northeast. While scanning the skies I also decided to take some 20 second constellation shots, which was challenging because of the wind buffeting the camera on its tripod. After about 30 minutes I decided to go inside and hope for an aurora wake-up call (which never came).

The next day I was reviewing the constellation shots when I was startled to see the characteristic green glow beneath the Big Dipper. It turns out that while I wasn't successful visually capturing the Northern lights I had managed to record it photographically. Retrospectively, it obviously makes sense that over a 20 second interval the CMOS chip could record the glow when it was too faint for my eyes.

 

The Northern Lights under Ursa Major

The remaining 2 evenings in Iceland were overcast so there was no additional opportunity to catch the lights. And, of course, the following week I saw reports of some fantastic aurora lighting up Icelandic skies - timing is everything. Our trip was truly memorable - surreal and beautiful nature, superb seafood, and welcoming people. I guess I'll put an asterisk next to that bucket list item of seeing the Aurora Borealis in that while I did not see them, I did manage to photograph them. 😊