Aurora Chase - Iceland - February 2013

[Arron]

No go here yet too much cloud about and it seems to be covering finland! Abisko is lit up though looking at the camera there's plenty time yet but not looking good now for tonight. The joys of aurora chasing!

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

No go here yet too much cloud about and it seems to be covering finland! Abisko is lit up though looking at the camera there's plenty time yet but not looking good now for tonight. The joys of aurora chasing!

It's so frustrating!

Hope it clears for you, no hope here in Southern Iceland, thick cloud pouring in off the Atlantic from now until Sunday it seems.

Such a good display in Abisko on the webcam.

[Arron]

Nothing here, stayed up for as long as poss but clouds remained. Beautiful clear skies today so hopefully it stays that way! Was gutting seeing the Abisko camera just get any accommodation there so we came here instead!

[Tom Lynch]

i shall keep my fingers crossed for you all. As for location , 'you pays your money , you takes your choice'. Unles you can afford ( if you can find accomdation) to fly out in advance of an incomming earthbound CME and the skies stay clear, you are always at the mercy of mother nature.

The dates of my stay in Abisko were determined by hotel because they were the only dates avaialble. Every night leading up to our arrival there was aurora. I could see the weatherb forcasts were showing snow showers for nearly all of my stay. That combined with a quiet solar period sealed our fate. However let me remind you how beautiful the scenery is and all the activities that are also available if you chose to take part.

Nice to hear you got to see some aurora Quentin.

As for next January Abislo cabins are available atm.

Tom

[Paul Sherman]

Almost 100% certain Arron and Laura caight some Aurora action tonight going from pictures on Facebook.

He will probably upload them on here soon - Hopefully!

[Arron]

Finally got some! Went out about 8pm and saw the green tinge within 5 minutes. Walked north out of town and managed to get a few snaps. We struggled getting away from the street lights and not be in the dense woods. The lights pulsed all night until Laura finally succumbed to the cold around midnight at -23c Perfect timing as they pretty much vanished when we started the walk back to the hotel. Heres a quick pic, got a few more I'll put up later

Next CME glance is due the day we leave so anything we see now is a bonus, fingers crossed!

[Dorsetbred]

Nice one well done

[Tom Lynch]

Nice work Arron

Glad you managed to bag some.

Tom

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Well done Arron, nice pic.

Not sure what to do tonight, we are sitting waiting and nearly falling asleep already. Driven a long way today back to Reykjavic for our flight home, we are both so tired and have to be up at about 04:15!

Can't see anything from our north facing window, but we are looking over the city so wondering if it's worth a 20 minute drive out into some proper darkness...

[Arron]

Last nights show was awesome! Just like it was last year with the dancing curtains, even got some pinks! Had the aurora arc for about three hours and in the middle the show for about 15 minutes. Pics up on facebook

Thick fog here today so don't hold up much hope for anything else. Got a car hired so should be fun :|

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Back in Nottingham now and feeling a bit frustrated with our bad luck, although we did have an amazing time exploring Iceland. I will upload a few pics probably tomorrow.

As for the northern lights...

Night 1 - Cloudy and wet. KP was very low anyway.

Night 2 - Clear for the first part of the night, no aurora, clouds over about 1am and it seems the aurora got going at about 2-3am.

Night 3 - Cloudy, aurora should have been visible had it been clear.

Night 4 - Cloudy, this is the night Arron got his photos, we were again stuck under a blanket of cloud.

Night 5 - Clear, no aurora visible, although with a 04:15 start for the journey home, we didn't head out of town but it seems the aurora was very weak anyway.

First night back in the UK, strong displays over Abisko and clear skies over Iceland indicate that we almost certainly would have seen them from Iceland.

Just really unlucky timing for us, cloudy nights coming at the worst time. That's what we get for choosing Iceland though, far more chance of cloud spoiling things, but still what an amazing country. We will be back to Iceland without a doubt.

Nice to see Arron got to see them though, not jealous at all!

[Arron]

unlucky mark, it's really frustrating sometimes. we got hit by the clouds last night and we had a car at last. Found a perfect spot 10km or so out of town over a lake, aurora came out and I got about ten photos and then in rolled the clouds. we could have driven for hours and not cleared them. Got back and saw abisko going nuts again!

Scoped out this area pretty well in the car yesterday and can't wait to come back. Got loads of spots to go to to watch the aurora on my list!

[gpspete]

bad luck Mark...., but you never know try again, one day soon there may me a decent Aurora visible all over England it has been photographed as far as southcoast a couple of times this year and several times last year there has been a couple realy big displays this winter that would have been easily visible except for cloud cover,

so keep a check on forecasts solar and weather and the fact that photos have been taken in uk even when the Kp index not been big,

i suspect it is visible in even southern england more often than people think, so i think it's always worth a look north if the sky is clear you never know !

possibly going back to Iceland in October will be staying in same hotel on edge of Keflavic so an easy walk out of most the street lighting to get photos same as last September, Going to Oslo Norway tomorrow for a few days not able to take Canon etc. with me not enough room but i will have a couple of action cams and a decent travel camera so hoping as I will be on the northern edge of Oslo in the pine forest and about the same latitude as Shetland i may just get to see the Aurora if its a strong one.

Edited February 12, 2013 by gpspete

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Here are a few of photos from our trip to Iceland, just to prove although we had bad luck with the Northern Lights, it wasn't all bad...

More on my mpphotographics facebook page, you don't need to like the page to see them...

http://www.facebook....173275402725786