Northern Lights or Bust!

[grumpyjock]

aadly you really can’t but quite a few take long exposure photos and claim to have seen them

a green haze would be lucky here , three years ago this time of year we saw all colours right through to red and full on dancing curtains

not to be confused with U.K. claims

I was born in Aberdeen and would claim differently.
My Ma was born in 1927 and remembers clearly coming back from dances in around late ‘40’s and seeing “ northern lights” on a regular basis.
Also remember by 3/4 am up on the East coat it was broad daylight then.
Obviously then less cars planes and pollution, bit like lockdown.
I’ve been lucky enough to see the Greenish Aurora up Aberdeen way And also the real thing in North Norway, it is a very special feeling.
We now live most of our time in North Norfolk, Weybourne, and twice a year we have the stargazers up/down, as it is one of two places in UK with as near darkness as possible.
You can walk at night and it really feels that you could reach up and pick a star by hand. No Northern lights though !

 

[BossyBus]

aww here I am green with envy! Enjoy every minute - looks fab!

 

[ceejayt]

So, here‘S a question. Driven a long way down into the Lofoten island - about 30km short of my target destination but have had to pull in for shelter as winds gusting up to 65 mph.
parked to try and find some relief from the wind but van really rocking about - never experienced anything like it.

Can I (should I) deploy the hydraulic legs? Right now I am thinking no

 

[eurajohn]

Nose into the wind and sure you'll be safe enough the legs down will steady the rocking.
Don't park sideways on.

 

[ceejayt]

Nose into the wind and sure you'll be safe enough the legs down will steady the rocking.
Don't park sideways on.

Well, I am rear into the wind and she is rocking 6 inches each way in the gusts. Supposed to all calm down in 4 hours or so. Will wait it out I certainly in 15 years have never experienced anything this bad.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ceejayt]

If yesterday's scenery was stunning then today driving through the Lofoten Islands can only be described as stunningly stunning!

Shame that it rained al out continuously and now the wind has popped up to 60mph. So, only a couple of photos.

I do have my fingers crossed for the Northern Lights tonight if the sky stays clear.

Probably just as well it wasn't sunny as I would have been stopping every 5 minutes for photo opportunities.

 

[Rjcamper]

aww here I am green with envy! Enjoy every minute - looks fab!

Me too, on our bucket / wish list, following all the posts

 

[ceejayt]

Boom!

I can officially say I saw the lights tonight. Very cloudy here but had about 5 minutes viewing time and the wind has thankfully dropped.

Better weather tomorrow and a slightly stronger KP so fingers crossed for a better and longer view that hopefully I can catch on camera !

 

[eurajohn]

My Grandson who lives in Trondheim sent me this last night first of the year, taken with his dash cam
Really pleased the main purpose of your trip has been fulfilled.

 

[bobnick]

Mabrook.

Boom!

I can officially say I saw the lights tonight. Very cloudy here but had about 5 minutes viewing time and the wind has thankfully dropped.

Better weather tomorrow and a slightly stronger KP so fingers crossed for a better and longer view that hopefully I can catch on camera !

Mabrook.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Foo Fighter]

I'm chuffed to bits for you. I've had the good fortune to see the magical display in 3 countries. Never seen them from UK yet, but fingers crossed. I hope you get to see some more later with a better KP index predicted. Safe travels

 

[ceejayt]

Hope fun for tonight - meanwhile here is a catch up on today.

Last night was Gale Force 10! No wonder the motorhome was being blown all over the road and even when stationary it was pretty unsettling - eventually calmed down at around 10pm which was when I got out to see the lights.

Having had such a horrendous drive down through the ~Lofoten Island and it being a nice day, I decided to double back and take some photos of what I had clearly missed yesterday - took a bundle of photos, these are the better ones...

This one is my absolute favourite. We just don't get light like this very often anywhere and especially not in the UK...

Was eating a bacon sandwich off my Lotus grill when I took this. Rest of the photos on the next post and this one deserves to be on its own

 

[ceejayt]

The best of the rest, tried to keep it to as few as ;possible but what a place!...

 

[ceejayt]

Standing outside watching the red glow right now. ... Diesnt do it justice. Currently getting stronger

 

[Littlewheels]

Your teasing us

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ceejayt]

This is the best image I could get - doesn't do it justice and still bit cloudy..

 

[corconx]

Fantastic photos. What camera are you using?
Carol

 

[denisejoe]

Dude, you can see them in Scotland! That's a hell of a trip...

There's even a song...all together now, "The northern lights of Old Aberdeen".

On second thoughts, let us not go there for it is a silly place.

Daughyer went to Iceland to see them not a sign of them in a week came home and the next week people could see them from Manchester

 

[mid4did]

I,ve always given Lofoten a miss,your pics are changing my mind.Great stuff.
Clear skies ahead for sure.Good for most of the way down the coast tonight A few clouds wont matter.
This was 300 miles south from kiruna a couple weeks ago.

 

[DavidG58]

If you like bird watching, keep your eye open for white tailed sea eagles , there are hundreds around there and fairly easy to see

huge birds, they are called flying barn doors due to their wing size

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ceejayt]

Fantastic photos. What camera are you using?
Carol

Mostly a Nikon D5300 DSLR and I tend to use aperture mode and select appropriate white balance and ISO

BUT a few are just taken with my iPone XS - the best camera is the ine you have in your hand! Those night time shots of the lights above were all iPhone.

 

[DBK]

The aurora was visible from Scotland last night apparently. Solar activity is currently high.

 

[ManTheVan]

Beautiful shots...

 

[nicholsong]

As pilots we used to see them frequently from 35,000ft. We used altitude not latitude to get there.

 

[G-RMPS]

That’s a proper plane. Mine runs out of puff at 15000ft. I do too, then start to see aurora whether they are there or not

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Dai37]

We are fascinated by your posting, keep it coming.

 

[DavidG58]

I restarted my aurora alerts and got this tonight

hope you got to see some more, what I really liked was having been told to look north east from U.K. and hope to see a green glow, then to see them from Narvik looking north south east and west abd seeing red and orange dancing curtains

by far the most amazing thing nature has shown me , well after my own daughters and grandchildren maybe, but a very close second

 

[ceejayt]

Homeward bound now - too cloudy last night to see anything more - I will be back to Norway for sure, it is a beautiful country, no doubt.

Ona side note, their mobile data infrastructure makes the UK look like it is in the dark ages. Even in the complete wilderness there is strong 4G - sometimes almost as fast as I get at home. My phone currently is telling me 50Megs! At no point on the trip have I had no signal and yet I don't seem to spot any masts?

This was yesterdays 'track' from the InReach for those of you watching the tracker...

50km back track on the previous day in order to get the ferry from Lodingen to Bognes - a one hour trip. Saves quite a bit of driving! That;'s another thing Norway has sorted, just drive on and drive off ferries - all they want is your number plate so they can bill you on Auto Pass, makes life quick and easy.

Now I am headed home I have the bit between my teeth so that was a fair old distance yesterday so around 415Km plus the ferry distance. Made the classic mistake of driving beyond where I had planned to stop having picked out a 'freebie' on Park4Night only to find a big No Camping or Overnighting sign so had to drive on further. I have a rule not to drive in the dark unless absolutely essential - got pretty close last night but found this lay-by just before sunset where I am sat typing this post this morning.

Lat: 66.170675

Lon: 13.824363

Because it rained almost all day not many photos but the highlight of the day was crossing the Arctic Circle, which you do at an altitude of around 692m (2270 feet). It's a spectacular drive, tunnels, bridges, tundra and lots of snow on the mountains. From the Arctic Circle down to here is one of those amazing roads where it gently twists and turns and has been designed as a 'drivers' road.

I will head towards Oslo today and just see how far I get, no planned stop in mind but it is too far to drive in a day.

I

Numerous stone cairns on the hill beside the visitors centre (which was shut for the winter unfortunately!

Big car park, you can play 'Where's Wally' and spot me in the car park.

I had to 'lighten' these photos to make them OK it was just such a grey overcast day.

 

[ceejayt]

Just snapped this in the lay-by - check out the sky ...

 

[DavidG58]

Do watch your speed, the whole of Norway has a max speed of 50 mph

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}