Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

We were hoping to go out to take more photos of the northern lights later this week, but just before 23:00 tonight we got a call from Sevim: active aurora! We looked out of the window and we saw a very bright display, even in the south. We quickly decided to drive somewhere, hoping the aurora wouldn’t disappear in the mean time 😉

We drove towards Store Blåmannen, a large mountain which I call the Matterhorn of Tromsø 😉 (it looks a bit similar). We found a place to take photos, but of course the lights were most active while I was still setting up my tripod and camera, there was hardly anything left by the time I was ready 😉 It was still very pretty though. The moon was nearly full and very bright.

After a while we started to get very cold (it was quite windy which made it feel cold) and the activity of the northern lights didn’t seem to increase, so we decided to go home. While we walked back to the car, suddenly the sky was filled with green beams, it was beautiful!! Of course it was decreasing again by the time I got my tripod and camera set up once more, but I still got some nice photos of the more active display:

Now it’s 2 in the morning, and I should really get some sleep! So this is all for now. I still hope we can go another time later in the week, if the weather stays good!

Last night the northern light forecast was really good, AND it was a perfectly clear night! So we decided to drive to Kvaløyvågen, a small village north of Tromsø from where we thought we’d have good views to the north without any city lights. It takes about 45 minutes to drive there, and we already saw the northern lights while driving. We drove to the end of the road, and continued on snowshoes. There were no lights there, but the moon was shining brightly – luckily to the south though! When we first got there, the northern lights were out, but very subtle.  Below you can see the moonlit landscape… it was beautiful!

After a while, the aurora became more active and much brighter. It was so beautiful! The views over the fjord were amazing, with the northern lights reflecting in the water. The circle in the second photo started out really big and quickly became smaller and smaller – a fantastic sight!

 

We finally made it back home at half past 1 in the morning… very tired! More active northern lights are expected next week, so I hope we get another chance to go out and take photos!

Well, for me at least! Though last week we did see some, but it was very faint and not worth taking a photo. Tonight for a short time they were quite active and I managed to get a few pictures from our balcony. Thanks to Sevim who warned me!