NORTHERN LIGHTS on the southern horizon

This month's image shows one of the many pictures we took two days before we did the Ice Cave Tour, featured last month. On the night of February 28th - March 1st 2015 we were lucky to witness a very strong aurora borealis display. And we were even twice lucky, since we had one of those hard to get "almost clear skies" in Southern Iceland.

After a strong solar flare being unleashed toward Earth two days before and with a predicted high global geomagnetic storm index of Kp=5, there were colorful lights all over the sky. The strong green bow, which usually spans the northern horizon, showed up in the south above the Atlantic Ocean. And what a mesmerizing sight, when it all suddenly disintegrated into a vast curtain of light! It was truly an unforgettable northern lights night at the Iceberg Beach near the famous Jökulsarlon!

There was a waxing gibbous moon (about 75%) that night. And again, we can't emphasize enough how much we love shooting aurora during brighter nights! With the green and pink curtains moving across the sky extremely fast, most of our shots were done with an exposure time of only 4-8s and ISO values up to 1250. Please check out our tips on Northern Lights Photography, about the importance of the lunar phase and where to get the best northern lights forecasts. 

And please stay tuned, more northern lights images from that night will be coming up soon.

Image data: 4s at f/2.8, ISO 1250; Canon EF 16-35mm 1:2.8 L II USM, Canon EOS 5D Mark II