Reykjavik Northern Lights Photos

Aurora nights around Reykjavík, in the order a hunt runs them: the city and the bay, the drive out, the stops, and the dark countryside. Looking at northern lights tour from Reykjavik? This is what you go out for.

The set opens over water. A green band hangs over a city skyline and its church tower, with the lights doubled in the bay. Then a beam of light rises from an island under an aurora arc, and the curtains fill the sky over a boat’s mast.

Next comes the road out. A faint aurora hangs over a snowy road, and two 4x4s wait under a green band on open ground.

Then the stops, where most of a night is spent. A railed platform and a boardwalk through snowy lava sit under the aurora. Watchers and tripods line a ridge, and a photographer kneels in the snow.

The set closes in the countryside. A white farmhouse is reflected in a still pond, a pale arc lies over a lake, and one figure stands on the snow under the curtains.

A camera sees more than your eye does. A long exposure turns a faint grey-green glow into the colours you see here, so expect the strongest nights to look like this and the quieter ones to look paler.