The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres.
The Northern Lights, known as the Aurora Borealis, is something I have wanted to see for a long time. We were a bit early in Alaska to see them and I thought we would be slightly early in Iceland also.
We had been watching the forecast since we arrived and found 4 days when the activity was suppose to be high. The first night we sat up till midnight and went in search of the lights. We sat at one of the places for about an hour, but there was some low level cloud, so went back to our accommodation. When we arrived back at the accommodation, we saw the grey streaks you find when there is a very low level of activity. I set my camera up and took a few shots to see the light green of the lights.
Two days later in Akureyri, the forecast was looking good - clear skies and a rating of 5. Around 11pm the lights started playing and dancing and continued for several hours. Just magical.
We then moved on to Grundafjordur and spend two nights looking at the lights. Grundafjordur isn't as dark as some other places, as there is a lot of town lights reflecting, so the aurora isn't quite as spectacular as Akureyri, but still brilliant. The viewing of the phenomenon is hard to describe, but I hope my pictures can display some of its glory.
Most of the pictures below are from Akureyri. The lights came in waves and seemed to have a direct focus point. The lights from Grundafjordur tended to fill the whole sky and did not have a focus point.
