When is it best to see northern lights in iceland
How to see the Northern Lights in Iceland
something just like visceral inside of
you happens when you season argillite
grab the camera
ah I was just like running around the
car and dancing and screaming like a
crazy person
[Music]
hi team Iceland I want to talk to you
about my favorite topic was the drummer
all during a drum roll to Northern
Lights
[Music]
this week Wednesday I was about to go to
bed and I just thought oh look outside
just see what I could see and you know
what those are the lights they were
there and it was the first sighting of
the year I mean it happens to me when
the Northern Lights come out and I just
like can't control my body I freaked out
I'm excited am i jumping around and
screaming and I'm you know like a child
at Christmas I can't explain it
if you season are the lights and you
know what I mean but if you have yet to
see them then you will soon see well
it's just my favorite time of year I
love Northern Lights season so if you're
coming to Iceland soon the good news is
is they are back they are out and
they're here to stay I want to talk
today about how you can see them in
Iceland and how you can take good photos
of them because I know that's a big
reason why people are coming to Iceland
right now it's a tall September and
October are classically the best times
in the fall to see the Northern Lights
and then again in March and April so if
you're coming to the next couple of
months
be ready there's kind of three factors
that I keep in mind when they're trying
to just see the Northern Lights in
general the first thing is that there
has to be a solar flare from the Sun the
Sun you know releases this energy and it
comes towards Earth and earth breaks it
apart and then it folds on the poles and
then that's how there's like a ring
around the earth that's where you can
see the Northern Lights so in order for
there to be aurora at all the sun had to
have let go of this solar flare within
the last couple of days rule number two
is cloud cover so there can be aurora
above the clouds but if there's high
cloud cover you're just not going to see
them so and this is obviously a big
factor in iceland so the weather in
Iceland is you know just so up and down
and you just never know number three is
light pollution
so why pollution obviously comes from
cities buildings cars houses all of that
kind of stuff
so a lot of people fear staying in
Reykjavik
you will have a harder time seeing the
lights they can be seen it's just way
easier and way more common to see them
out you know like in the country and
away from that light pollution so the
first website that I used to check is
called geophysical Institute and you can
check basically how active you are will
be for that particular evening so
anything that's basically above a 2 so
you're thinking 3 or above will be a
pretty good likelihood of seeing the
nards lights at evening here you can see
that the ring goes right through Iceland
so I know that tonight
vor will be active so that is a good
sign to start off with the second
website that I like to check is called
Vader is and this is the local Icelandic
weather station so they do a really good
job of showing me what the cloud cover
will be like in the entire country so
basically the white is no clouds and the
green is a lot of clouds you go down and
right here there's a bar where you can
drag in the next couple of days how the
cloud cover will be so right now this is
where we're at and if I drag towards
here then you can see the clouds rolling
in so for example if you're going to be
in week in South Iceland tomorrow night
and Wednesday then you're going to drag
that cursor over and see ok well looks
pretty clear for Wednesday night and
into Thursday night as well so you can
just really start to see what the cloud
cover is looking like so this is really
really helpful to look at website number
3 that I checked is called soft-serve
News so for example say at this point
you know that the roar is going to be
high and active there's very little
clouds for where you're going to be all
systems are go it's looking really
really good
then you're going to want to check
soft-serve news because what I love so
much about this website is they break it
down into increments basically of how
active the aurora will be in the next
in 22 37 52 minutes how amazing is this
I love that so if I'm going outside and
I'm going to look for the aura and it's
going to be a hunting night then I know
in 52 minutes I need to be outside
because that's when they're going to be
very active so this is so nice to just
check for the activity level within this
time frame photographing the Northern
Lights can be difficult if you don't
know how to do it I mean what are the
norms in life if you can't prove that
you saw them with a photo right right I
think in general the better capabilities
your camera has as far as you know being
able to manually control the settings
the better luck you're going to have
number one super important you guys need
it you need to have a tripod of some
sort this is really important because
you want to minimize any movement that
you have around your camera while you're
taking the photo
my second favorite piece of equipment is
a shutter release which allows you to
just press so that the camera focuses
and then it takes the shot that they're
really inexpensive I think I got our
Shore like $20 off of Amazon so oh the
settings on your camera so you're going
to want to first of all have a really
long exposure so with the Northern
Lights
it's a dark out obviously so your camera
doesn't have something like to pull the
light in especially if your waist like
out on the country and you don't have a
light source so you want to set your
camera to have a long exposure usually
ours as we like to do between 20 to 30
seconds for the exposure so it's
basically during that time frame it's
pulling as much light in it as I can so
it's pulling the colors of the aura and
then the other thing that you're going
to want to manually change is the ISO so
kind of a good rule of thumb for that is
I usually set it around 800 this is very
dependent on again how much light you
have around you so for example if you
are if if we're shooting them from our
apartment or if you're in the city then
I then I can stick around that 800 but
were further out in the country where
there isn't a lot of light around
we actually do bump that number up to
almost you know like a thousand or 1200
because that is basically the amount of
light that it's pulling in just kind of
play around with it it's going to vary
based on where you are and what you're
doing and everything like that just two
good rules of thumb longer exposure
higher ISO
if you are in Reykjavik during your
state there are a couple of cool places
that you can go in order to see them in
the city
the lighthouse down by the harbor is a
really good area because it kind of
blocks us some of that light pollution
and then if you're really willing then
you can drive outside of the city last
thing I want to talk about is just
taking the Northern Lights tours so
obviously they offer tons of tours here
will take you out in to the middle of
the wilderness or on the glacier and you
know basically anything you could want I
think I sound like a boat tour as well
so there's lots of tours so if you're
not comfortable navigating the roads at
night by yourself or you know maybe
you're staying right sipping you don't
have a car there's tours that go out all
the time so you're if you want scenar on
life you will and you can I've never
taken a tour for the other night but one
thing that I've heard is that if you're
signed up for one night to see them and
you know the visibility is low or
whatever they will cancel the tour
they'll roll over your tours to the next
night and they'll just basically keep
trying until you'll get to see them so
yeah so that's what I have for today and
hopefully you learned a lot let me know
in the comments please let me know in
the comments if you guys think that
these videos are helpful have a great
weekend and happy I hope
[Music]
you
you
