Thorlakshofn

Straight after the south coast tour I got on the bus to the northern lights Tour as I was sooo eager to see them finally.

Hope to get to see the northern lights today.

First time I had this tour was on day one. Since then I went every night to be sure I will not miss a chance to see them (if you don't get to see them on the tour they let u redo the tour until u do see them).

Update: I finally got see them. Patience pays off even though you can barely see it with your own eyes (during the night our eyes see more contrasts than colours) . It actually looks like a grey shadow over the horizon. As cameras absorbs the light more intensively u can take amazing pictures. The color of the northern lights can be different and variates depending on physics reactions in the sky.

The best time to see the Northern lights is between October and April. Sky should be clear from clouds. As lower the clouds are as less are the chances to see the Northern lights (the third day we had a lot of clouds. The other days the sky was clear). Also usually the Northern lights mostly shown from the north (that's where the name comes from).
One way of measuring the chances to see the Northern lights is the kp index. It goes from 0 to 9 whereas 9 is very rare and u can actually have a great view of the Northern lights with index 2 already.

On day 1, 2 and 4 we had index 2 (on day 4 I finally got to see them). On day 3 we had index 3. They did show up, however, 45 mins after we left the viewing point going back to Reykjavik. The later tour was able to see them. I was so mad because one guy came with us and left with the later group cause he wanted to see the lights so bad and I was actually thinking about doing the same but as I had to get up early the next day for another tour I decided not to. I was mad about myself later on. But then the waiting still paid off on day 4 😊.

I think at the end it was the waiting on the Northern lights rather than the Northern lights itself that iam thankful for. Looking up the stars, the mostly clear sky, in the middle of nowhere, facing the cold and the wind, nothing around u feels important and then you can just wait.... Makes u think about a lot of stuff.Read more