Iceland and the Northern Lights

There are YEARS with more NL than others - runs in an 11 (?) years cycle - this is a low intensity period.
Except for that NL is "ON" anytime of the year - YOUneed that is is dark and theat there are neither clouds nor citylight.
So optimum is Winter (dec-jan) for the light. Clouds is a probelm all over NEurope - inland positions (like NSweden and Finland) will have a better "clear skies statistics" than anywhere along the Atlantic coast. - -these areas are also furteh north than Iceland (remember Iceland is not VERY far north! - south of Polar Circle)
North coast of Iceland (Akureyri - short and cheap flight from Reykjavik) TENDS to have less clouds.

re camara: A SLR (or a compact) on a tripod able to make long time exposures. (seconds - or the "B"-setting).
A wide angle lens 20- 30 mm if referring to 35mm film.. Remember to have fresh batteries (or extra - keep them in pocket) - batteries have very short working time when they get cold - and a clear night is often a cold night.
After digital cameras where you can check the result immediately the "art" of making such photoes have become very simple.
There are zillions of articles on the net on the subject: like http://www.venhaus1.com/photographaurora.html

Thanks for the reply.

I am not an expert but I was very lucky to see northern lights in April 2007. I was in the Myvatn area in northern Iceland, in Reykjalid to be precise. Somebody had told me that if you see white smears in the afternoon (a bit like airplane marks but wider) it can be a prelude to northern lights. I went looking for them every now and then at several times of the night, but that time I saw the white smears in the afternoon I went out at 11pm and saw northern lights for about half an hour, all around and above me! It was amazing! Colourful 'clouds' changing shapes and curling, others looked like falling particles, another one looked like a beam of a space ship coming towards me. You keep questioning your own eyes!!

I photographed them using my SLR camera, it needed exposure times of about 20-30 seconds. See my Iceland photo album. I had perched my SLR onto a fence using a tiny flexible tripod.
The photos turned out somewhat greener and brighter than what my eyes actually saw (for example the green curl, I saw as more of a yellow-green curl with my eyes).

After that I went out looking for more northern lights every night at different hours when there were no clouds, in different locations in eastern and southern Iceland, but never saw any more.

Every time I read about people having seen them in Iceland, it's usually in the north. So if you can, fly to Akureyri and try to stay in the Myvatn area or some other cool place.

I don't know about those expensive northern light tours from Reykjavik... on the one hand the locals probably know best which time is good and how to get away from the city lights. But on the other hand you might as well get a rental car and drive out into a dark place yourself.

Oh - I forgot to mention that I also answered your question #2! The Myvatn area is amazing. It has a lot of vulcanic activity, for example the site called Hverir. It also has interesting lava fields, craters and semi craters, and even a tiny forest (a rare sight in Iceland). There are brochures that have suggestions for nice walks, you can get them at Elda guesthouse in Reykjalid but probably other hotels have them too.

In Reykjalid you will find a swimming pool, but just outside Reykjalid are the Myvatn nature baths which is like a cheap miniature Blue Lagoon: hot blue water to bathe in in the open air (it's open til late so you can see the sun set and bathe beneath the stars... maybe even see aurora!), and a small turkish steambath. Don't wear silver into the water or it will turn black.

Thanks for the replies.

I take it because of exposure times of around 20 seconds that i will not be able to take a picture of myself under the lights as i'd be slightly moving in that 20 seconds?

For how long can you hold your breath? ;-)
You can always experiment.

(P.S. You can also experiment now just to try it... in quite a dark street for example, or in your room with very low light)

Since NL pictures needs not to be "100%" sharp, you can tage such oictures in an "emergency" without a tripod, if you press the camara against something solid - a watt, a post in a fence, a rock, the roof of you can (engine off). Most important is to make sure you know how to
tun off the flash
set camara to take exposures at th time YOU determinges - or at the "B" position.
Even if the aotumatic exposure MAY seem to work even with long exposure times, the pictures will be "wrong" - the camera will try to make the picture look like daylight.