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Aurora Chase - Iceland - February 2013


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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Following on from Tom's attempt to see the illusive northern lights, I thought I would also start a thread for anyone interested in following my attempt.

I am going with my girlfriend next Wednesday 6th February and staying there for 5 nights, 1st and last in Reykjavik, and middle three nights in Fludir which is further inland and more remote. We are renting a car, which I am very nervous about, I have never driven a left hand drive on the right hand side before, it will be strange.

The sun is looking very quiet at the moment in terms of sunspots, and time is running out for that to change. I'm not building my hopes up for any CME impacts, but relying more on the solar wind or some minor flares.

Iceland can be quite cloudy which is also a worry, early signs look like high pressure could be around for our first night at least, which could give us some clear skies, but anything could happen yet.

We have plenty of other things planned, waterfalls, geysers, blue lagoon, volcanoes etc, so even if we don't see the northern lights, hopefully I will get some good photos and we will have a great time.

Would be great to get some more people liking my photography page in my signature and my twitter, I will be keeping them updated too with photos, especially facebook.

Anyway I will update again nearer to our departure.

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Posted
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL

Good luck mct. Driving on the left is fun, you'll be used to it in 20 minutes :D

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Posted
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales

We're off back to finland on the thursday 8th, I might start a thread too! Staying in Helsinki and then up to Ivalo till Tuesday. Again my hopes are not that high unlike last year, but -20c predicted when we arrive so should be fun! Fingers crossed for ya!

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

We're off back to finland on the thursday 8th, I might start a thread too! Staying in Helsinki and then up to Ivalo till Tuesday. Again my hopes are not that high unlike last year, but -20c predicted when we arrive so should be fun! Fingers crossed for ya!

Yes you should definitely start a thread too!

You will have a higher chance than me, more chance of clear skies and further north, so good luck.

Or we could always change this to a virtual aurora chase thread lol, I don't mind either way

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Suddenly there is some optimism with regards to solar activity.

This is from Spaceweather.com tonight...

SUNSPOT OF INTEREST: A break in the quiet could be in the offing. Sunspot AR1667 is crackling with C-class solar flares and appears capable of producing an even stronger M-class eruption. The sunspot is turning toward Earth, so future blasts would likely be geoeffective.

The weather in Iceland however is looking pretty unsettled, at the moment looking at the charts I think we will be lucky to get 1 or 2 clear nights out of the 5.

I suspect Arron will do much better being in an area which is more prone to clear skies.

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Posted
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales

I read that earlier too..weather forecast was for clear skies fri/sat/sun but recent forecast changed now :( It is a bit general though so fingers crossed! I'll hire a car if need be :D

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Here's hoping the current activity peaks Weds night as I'm Aurora chasing south of Greenland & Iceland....

Nice, how long are you away? Is it a cruise?

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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL

Nice, how long are you away? Is it a cruise?

It's a flight out of Bournemouth up and then towards greenland and back. Best chance there is to miss the clouds. Now I'm hoping that AR1667 fires up as it turns earthbound, to improve things.

Although it has to be said I've been watching the aurora at Abisko tonight and some good stuff going on there before it went overcast.

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Posted
  • Location: Newbury Berkshire
  • Location: Newbury Berkshire

Hi an good luckgood.gif Iceland is a place I will visit one day,take plenty of money its not a cheap place to visit? As for the driving,take your time don't rush and it will be second nature before you know itbiggrin.png

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

It's a flight out of Bournemouth up and then towards greenland and back. Best chance there is to miss the clouds. Now I'm hoping that AR1667 fires up as it turns earthbound, to improve things.

Although it has to be said I've been watching the aurora at Abisko tonight and some good stuff going on there before it went overcast.

Sounds good, at least you won't be stuck under cloud like me.

It's looking quite likely that we could be stuck under cloud about 90% of our time there!

We arrive at 10:20 on Wednesday night so you might even go over us!

Good luck.

Hi an good luckgood.gif Iceland is a place I will visit one day,take plenty of money its not a cheap place to visit? As for the driving,take your time don't rush and it will be second nature before you know itbiggrin.png

Thanks, yes we are taking plenty of money, 100,000 of their currency, about £550 in ours. We are hoping that's enough for 4 full days and 5 nights.

As for the driving, I'm just about to start watching some more videos and reading about the road signs etc, still nervous about that!

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Posted
  • Location: Bicester Oxfordshire
  • Location: Bicester Oxfordshire

remember Iceland is usually under the Aurora oval and if the sky is clear something usually will be visible at some time even when the sun is not very active

look north take some photos your camera may see something that the eye doesn't you may find the Aurora is even overhead or to the south

so scan the sky carefully

most IMPORTANT take any filters off your lens or you will get concentric rings in your images that you will not be able to edit out

shoot in raw so you can colour correct easy

or if you want to shoot in jpegs if there are any street lights or amber in the sky set white balance on a canon to tungsten

seem to work best apparently

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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL

1667 has died off so that's not going to help us. Looking at Abisko tonight it's quite quiet aurora wise so far. Next surge looks more towards the end of the week.

So for my flight tomorrow night is looking a tad on the low side as KP index is currently 1!

Oh well, we shall see, still got 24 hours to improve.

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Posted
  • Location: Cumbria UK
  • Weather Preferences: Cloud 9
  • Location: Cumbria UK

Lady Nature loves to pee around with our emotions doesn't she

I went up to Shap last night and sat in a blizzard with horizontal snow and snow ploughs going passed.

Such is life. As you save 7th & 8th looks favourable fingers crossed for no calls and clear skies.

Tom

Following on from Tom's attempt to see the illusive northern lights, I thought I would also start a thread for anyone interested in following my attempt.

I am going with my girlfriend next Wednesday 6th February and staying there for 5 nights, 1st and last in Reykjavik, and middle three nights in Fludir which is further inland and more remote. We are renting a car, which I am very nervous about, I have never driven a left hand drive on the right hand side before, it will be strange.

The sun is looking very quiet at the moment in terms of sunspots, and time is running out for that to change. I'm not building my hopes up for any CME impacts, but relying more on the solar wind or some minor flares.

Iceland can be quite cloudy which is also a worry, early signs look like high pressure could be around for our first night at least, which could give us some clear skies, but anything could happen yet.

We have plenty of other things planned, waterfalls, geysers, blue lagoon, volcanoes etc, so even if we don't see the northern lights, hopefully I will get some good photos and we will have a great time.

Would be great to get some more people liking my photography page in my signature and my twitter, I will be keeping them updated too with photos, especially facebook.

Anyway I will update again nearer to our departure.

Good luck , fingers crossed for you both.

Tom

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Posted
  • Location: Cumbria UK
  • Weather Preferences: Cloud 9
  • Location: Cumbria UK

1667 has died off so that's not going to help us. Looking at Abisko tonight it's quite quiet aurora wise so far. Next surge looks more towards the end of the week.

So for my flight tomorrow night is looking a tad on the low side as KP index is currently 1!

Oh well, we shall see, still got 24 hours to improve.

I went on one of those flights , good fun too. Especially the need to rotate seats whilst in flight so that everyone gets their time by the window, and in total darkness. The seats on our plane were three and three so by agreement we rotated me window, uncle middle and girl on the aisle. Me middle girl window and uncle aisle etc etc etc. AND no flashes, all flashes turned off LED lights on camera taped over with insulating tape. Any flashes were frowned over so on start of flight we all had to do a test run, point our camera towards the front and on the count of 5 take a photo.

Good fun

Tom

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

remember Iceland is usually under the Aurora oval and if the sky is clear something usually will be visible at some time even when the sun is not very active

look north take some photos your camera may see something that the eye doesn't you may find the Aurora is even overhead or to the south

so scan the sky carefully

most IMPORTANT take any filters off your lens or you will get concentric rings in your images that you will not be able to edit out

shoot in raw so you can colour correct easy

or if you want to shoot in jpegs if there are any street lights or amber in the sky set white balance on a canon to tungsten

seem to work best apparently

Thanks a lot for the tips Pete, I have never tried shooting in RAW before but my memory cards are all clear so I think this time I will try it. The thing I'm worried about is the amount of time my camera takes processing each shot.

I think the main problem will be cloud at the moment though, Thursday could well be the only night with clear spells, but only up until about 9pm. Plenty of time for change, but I'm not building my hopes up too much. Just hope we get some decent weather for seeing the waterfalls and everything else.

1667 has died off so that's not going to help us. Looking at Abisko tonight it's quite quiet aurora wise so far. Next surge looks more towards the end of the week.

So for my flight tomorrow night is looking a tad on the low side as KP index is currently 1!

Oh well, we shall see, still got 24 hours to improve.

Hope you get to see something, at least you will be above the clouds.

I imagine it's more difficult to take photos from a plane, but must be an amazing sight.

Hope it goes well.

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Sunspot 1667 just put out a decent flare reaching C8.7, not far from an M class flare.

Could be good news, but I'm unsure when any CME would be due to hit.

Must pack then get to bed, got to be up in 3 hours!

Edited by multi cellular thunderstorm
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Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL
  • Location: Poole, Dorset 42m ASL

So the gods have smiled, aurora we did have, hanging icicles in the night sky, no pics as the sitting in the dark, I couldn't get the camcorder set for night time extra to get the enhancement, without hacking a lot of people off.

Ah well, at least they smiled on me. Tornado Alley be prepared my luck is turning......

And Abisko has gone ballistic, what a display it's putting on right now, with twists, and curtains, greens & reds....

Edited by Dorsetbred
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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Pleased you got to see them Quentin.

No such luck here so far, we are under clear skies for now but cloud is moving in soon and so far nothing, not even a slight glow. The auroral oval looked really good too and with last nights display for you and at Abisko happening at KP1, I can't see why the same can't happen tonight at KP2 (now 1). Just doesn't seem to be happening for whatever reason.

Next few days look better in terms of activity, but typically this cloud moving in tonight doesn't look like shifting until maybe Sunday, our last night here.

Still had an amazing day today at the Geysirs and Gullfoss Waterfall in sunshine and snow, lovely weather.

Hope Arron gets to see them in the next few days, if it's clear there I think he will get a good show tomorrow and saturday.

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Posted
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales
  • Location: Aberystwyth, West Wales

Sat in Helsinki waiting for our flight up. Looking good for tonight and tomorrow and looking at the radar skies are clearing, just hope it continues. Noaa going for a 35% chance for tonight :D Mark, not sure where you're based but someone posted this up at spaceweather from last night in iceland

http://spaceweather.com/gallery/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=76340

Debating wether to hire a car or not when we land :/ Good luck for tonight, happy hunting!

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Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

Sat in Helsinki waiting for our flight up. Looking good for tonight and tomorrow and looking at the radar skies are clearing, just hope it continues. Noaa going for a 35% chance for tonight biggrin.png Mark, not sure where you're based but someone posted this up at spaceweather from last night in iceland

http://spaceweather....upload_id=76340

Debating wether to hire a car or not when we land :/ Good luck for tonight, happy hunting!

Lovely pic although a bit frustrating to see.

We last checked at about 01:30 and they weren't visible and the cloud was rolling in, that photo was taken after 3am and further north west of us, we are currently in Fludir in South Iceland.

On our way back to the hotel in the last half hour there was the odd small break in the cloud, but it's forecast to be overcast tonight and tomorrow so we don't have high hopes. Probably will still have a drive out later and see if there are any holes around.

Sunday looks possibly clearer but just hoping the stronger activity will linger until then, that's our last night.

Good luck with your hunting Arron.

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