In theory, seeing the Northern Lights shouldn’t be all that hard. After all, here I am on a ship quite far north and it is the start of the usual sights from fall on. The practical reason that the lights aren’t reported all summer is that the sky has to be dark… and if you are far enough north that a day lasts from 20-24 hours, there simply isn’t enough darkness to have a clue as to what is going on in the heavens, much less see starts or the aura.
So here it is, the end of August. For the last several nights we have been treated to the sights of clouds appearing on the horizon right around sunset and lasting into the morning (repeat comment above about being able to see….). Around an island, because of the difference between land and water temperatures, overcast skies are the norm. Tonight was different. It was a beautiful clear sunset complete with a couple of icebergs.
About 2300 the first of the northern lights started dancing in the sky. One of our friends on the ship gave me a call right around midnight.
For the next hour, I watched the show. I had my camera with, but hadn’t brought either the tripod or remote out. Without them, it really wasn’t worth making the photo attempt but I will try to grab a few examples from Amy who was a bit better prepared. What I wasn’t willing to do was go back to the cabin and disturb George who managed to sleep through the whole thing in spite of my best attempts.
We are at sea again tomorrow, so we will see if I can manage to catch photos the next time.
