The Northern Lights are the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in the color of the lights are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.

Oh, and by the way....another little Northern Lights fact.....if you don't have a fancy, high-powered, expensive camera and tripod to use to capture the lights.....you ain't getting a picture for your silly Iceland blog. I was kinda out of my league when it came to being prepared for this photography adventure. Just comprehending the camera settings was beyond me! I did practice a moon shot.....but it was doubtful my camera was going to capture the lights when they finally appeared.


Our bus tour took us far away from the city lights to several different spots to await the lights. How do they determine where to go? They constantly monitor the Aurora Forecast to find areas with less cloud coverage and dark skies. It sure was dark....but no lights after three different locations. At this point it was approaching midnight, and the bus began its return to the city.

Wait just a minute! The bus came to a stop and it seems they spotted a faint streak of light across the dark skies. Could it be? Is it? Maybe? Well, it sure wasn't the bright green dancing lights you see in pictures. It was barely green at all. It honestly looked like a white hazy rainbow in the distance. Needless to say.....whatever it was.....It was now time to move out of the way for all the Chinese tourists to setup their fancy electronics! They threw down their tripods, mounted their high-tech cameras, and customized their camera settings faster than a herd of speeding turtles.

POOOOF!!!!! In the next instant.....up flashed a digital photo of the green Northern Lights across the sky on their camera screens. What???? Jenesa and I looked at each other speechless! These cameras literally turned a faint white light across the sky into a beautiful green streak. There is quite a difference in what the naked eye can see and what can be captured with a camera. We just got proof of that tonight. So we spent the next 15-20 minutes watching the screens of nearby cameras to see what different colors and light waves showed up. 




I stole this photo from Google Images. This is basically what we saw. A very faint light stretching across the sky in the far distance. A white-cloudy-looking image that turned a tint of green throughout the night. The green color really popped at different times when photographed on the cameras around us. We weren't overly impressed with what we saw tonight. Luckily we have another Northern Lights excursion tomorrow night.

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The Leonard's

The Leonard's

About Us

We are just two 30-something teachers from Pennsylvania looking to explore the world. No kids. No money. And, no worries! There is always something new to experience and see every year. Whether by plane, train, or Harley Davidson...we want to experience and see everything we can! So, we're off again....