Sunday, with Northern Lights

The original schedule called for us to go out to try to see the northern lights on Saturday, the day we got in. Thankfully, that was called off on account of weather, so we got some much-needed sleep. Sunday we wandered around Reykjavik on our own, ate lunch at a place called Krost, went down to the harbor, wandered along the shore, found the sun sculpture, went to the Viking Museum, came back and ate dinner at a very nice restaurant a block from the hotel.






The weather had cleared up a lot, and we went out to a mostly dark area (only mostly because of the other tour groups that converged on the same spot, and the thankfully not too well frequently traveled alongside). The northern lights did not appear immediately, but when they did, they gradually formed a band all across the sky, from one horizon to the other.

Some people can see subtle colors in the northern lights. I cannot. I think my cones shut down completely in the dark, leaving only the rods active. I have a "night sight" setting on my phone which gives an exposure of maybe 15 or 20 seconds, and that was able to capture the colors.





If you look at the first picture carefully, you can see that I captured the Big Dipper in it.

Polaris, the North Star, was readily visible, but I could only get an approximate idea of which direction was north, because Polaris was so close to being directly overhead.

I'm writing this on Tuesday evening, because Monday was so full. I just went to bed as soon as we got back.

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