We just wrapped up a trip to Iceland. We had an absolutely amazing time, despite a terrible storm, and I’ll of course write a detailed trip report when I’m back home. As I hinted at in my post about The Retreat at Blue Lagoon, I finally saw the Northern Lights on this trip for the first time, so I want to briefly share that experience.
In this post:
We saw the Northern Lights twice while in Iceland!
Prior to this trip, I had never really seen the Northern Lights in all my years of travel. That’s probably partly because I typically prefer to travel to warmer climates, and that definitely limits your odds. Now, I say I hadn’t “really” seen them because I’ve sort of seen them from planes a couple of time. But we’re talking about very dim and brief viewings, so I don’t really count those.
The funny thing is that I’ve had an Aurora tracking app on my phone since 2018, ever since I visited Whitehorse on Condor’s (at the time) unique flight from Frankfurt. I can’t count the number of times that I opened the app just out of curiosity and amazement, so I was excited to finally have the chance to use it.
Admittedly Iceland in October isn’t necessarily the best time of year or place to see the Northern Lights. There are places that are darker and further north, where you have better odds. Furthermore, there’s of course an element of luck to all of this, so you can’t actually ever count on seeing them.
We spent our first two nights in Iceland at Torfhus Retreat, which is out in the middle of nowhere, so that gives you the best odds of seeing the Northern Lights, since there’s not much light pollution. On social media, I saw beautiful pictures of the Northern Lights taken from the hotel the two nights prior.
The hotel even offers a Northern Lights wakeup call, so I figured this would be our best chance. Well, go figure on the two nights we were there, conditions were cloudy, and we saw absolutely nothing. We figured that was our best chance, and that we’d only see them on some future trip. I think Ford even felt a bit bad for me, based on my excitement, since I was checking the app every five minutes, and giving constant updates.
Then our next night at the Reykjavik EDITION, there was an absolutely awful snowstorm, the worst in history the country has seen that time of year, so the conditions weren’t clear enough to see much.
The second night at the EDITION, we were laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep with our curtans closed, and I opened my phone one more time to check, just out of curiosity. To my surprise, the Aurora app showed the lights in the area, though I figured conditions outside wouldn’t be good, and therefore we wouldn’t see them. 
Well, I opened our curtains, and BAM, there they were! We put on clothes and ran downstairs, and I was delighted we had finally seen them.
The next night we stayed at The Retreat at Blue Lagoon. This day I kind of had a good feeling — the lights had been strong the night before, and the skies were rather clear, with the exception of some scattered clouds.
The hotel also offers a Northern Lights wakeup call, which we had requested. However, we didn’t even end up needing that. Around 9PM I noticed that conditions looked quite good in the app.
Shortly after getting out of the lagoon and while devouring just french fries in the lobby (long story, but don’t worry, I won’t make a separate blog post about it), 😉 the front desk associate mentioned the lights were visible.
So we headed up to the hotel’s rooftop viewing terrace, and sure enough, there they were, much more vibrant than the night before, and in every direction. WOW! 
The inconvenient truth of the Northern Lights
Now, I don’t want to speak like some Northern Lights expert based on seeing them twice on one trip. Otherwise I’d be no better than half of the people providing travel advice on social media. 😉 But there was one thing that surprised me.
I was aware that the Northern Lights are much brighter through a camera lens than through the naked eye. However, I wasn’t prepared for just how big the contrast is. Take our “viewing” the last night, at The Retreat at Blue Lagoon.
Through a camera, you’d think these things were just lighting up the sky, and that you’d feel like the earth is putting on some performance for you. Well, truth be told, I only very faintly saw them without using a camera. Like, if I hadn’t been specifically looking for the Northern Lights, I might not have even noticed them, even if outside.
It’s almost like a phone camera is a necessary Northern lights “decoder,” and is needed for them to appear. So I’m curious, since I’m just a rookie here… I realize they’re always more vivid through a lens than to the eye, but do they sometimes even really light up the night without looking through a camera, or is this what it’s always like?
Either way, it was super cool. It’s just that I was caught off guard by how drastic the contrast was.
Bottom line
After being on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, I finally saw the Northern Lights in a substantial way. Obviously this requires luck, and seeing the Northern Lights wasn’t a primary objective of this trip, but it sure was a nice bonus.
What’s funny is that the sightings didn’t happen when or how I was expecting. They didn’t happen at the hotel where odds were the best (due to lack of light pollution and a Northern Lights wakeup call), but they did happen at our hotel in the middle of Reykjavik, with lots of light pollution and no wakeup call.
It was so cool to see them, though the only thing that surprised me was how big the light contrast was between viewing them with just my eyes vs. through my iPhone.
I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for about 10 years. I really felt sorry for all the tourists that fly into town with hopes of seeing the northern lights up near the Arctic circle. You would think we would have the best chances of seeing a good light show but cloud cover is prevalent in the winter months in the Alaskan interior. Even locals will pull over on the side of the road if a good...
I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for about 10 years. I really felt sorry for all the tourists that fly into town with hopes of seeing the northern lights up near the Arctic circle. You would think we would have the best chances of seeing a good light show but cloud cover is prevalent in the winter months in the Alaskan interior. Even locals will pull over on the side of the road if a good northern light show is happening. That's how rare it is to see pink and purple and most of the time it's just a light green that can be hard to differentiate from clouds. I found in 10 years that it's rarely like the promotional pictures.
Beautiful photos Ben and glad you got to see them. I have my fingers crossed that my family and I will get to see them later this year on our Norway cruise to Kirkenes and back.
Nice photos! It’s fantastic that you were able to witness the northern lights twice in Iceland. I visited Reykjavik last summer, but I didn’t even consider looking for them there. I won’t repeat that mistake the next time!
However, I had the opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis for the first time in Wyoming during an unusually high level of solar activity in May 2024:
https://felixwong.com/2024/05/chasing-the-northern-lights-photos-from-colorado-and-wyoming/
As you mentioned, the colors were much more vibrant...
Nice photos! It’s fantastic that you were able to witness the northern lights twice in Iceland. I visited Reykjavik last summer, but I didn’t even consider looking for them there. I won’t repeat that mistake the next time!
However, I had the opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis for the first time in Wyoming during an unusually high level of solar activity in May 2024:
https://felixwong.com/2024/05/chasing-the-northern-lights-photos-from-colorado-and-wyoming/
As you mentioned, the colors were much more vibrant when captured with the phone camera. Nevertheless, they were still clearly visible with the naked eye. I depicted what my phone saw with what I saw with my own eyes in the post.
I saw pink and green ones with my naked eye as clear as the pictures you posted. 2 times in my life. Every other time all 4, it has been as you described.
great pictures...
Congratulations!
It is possible to see them without a camera BUT you have to get away from all lights and let your eyes adjust to the dark. I was up at ICE hotel in Jukkasjärvi,Sweden -where I got that tip. Go to a really dark spot , no street lights etc... Then just stand there for like 15 min or more and your eyes will adjust and you will see them clearly . :)
When it’s weak , yes a camera helps , when it’s strong nothing beats the human eye
So glad you got to see the Northern lights, Ben! Wonderful pics. And yes they absolutely can be brighter. We went to Finland and sat outside in the bitter cold watching amazing bright light shows dancing all around with no camera needed. They were most fun when right overhead and when you look directly up you almost expect it to be raining colour on you!
I guess it just depends on the intensity of...
So glad you got to see the Northern lights, Ben! Wonderful pics. And yes they absolutely can be brighter. We went to Finland and sat outside in the bitter cold watching amazing bright light shows dancing all around with no camera needed. They were most fun when right overhead and when you look directly up you almost expect it to be raining colour on you!
I guess it just depends on the intensity of the aurora and light pollution. We were in a fairly secluded spot near Muonio on the Swedish border.
I went to Alaska in March 2020 to check off 3 bucket list items: see the northern lights, watch the Iditarod, and take the train from Anchorage to Fairbanks. Went out 3 different times on aurora watch excursions and saw them twice. They just looked like white cirrus clouds moving rapidly across the sky. Everyone was oohing and ahhing but no one said look through your camera so I was very disappointed.
Then in...
I went to Alaska in March 2020 to check off 3 bucket list items: see the northern lights, watch the Iditarod, and take the train from Anchorage to Fairbanks. Went out 3 different times on aurora watch excursions and saw them twice. They just looked like white cirrus clouds moving rapidly across the sky. Everyone was oohing and ahhing but no one said look through your camera so I was very disappointed.
Then in May 2021 the aurora oval showed the southern border would be over northern Utah ( live there) and got amazing pics of green, red, and purple ribbons and streaks from the end of my driveway.
Also, I wanted to contradict what a previous person said about Iceland. I’ve been twice, once for two weeks and again for a month. The people I met there were very warm and personable, maybe one or two standoffish people (not rude) during the course of whole month. We went during the summer so didn’t see the Northern Lights but saw many other incredible sights. I find it incredulous that someone could find the Icelandic...
Also, I wanted to contradict what a previous person said about Iceland. I’ve been twice, once for two weeks and again for a month. The people I met there were very warm and personable, maybe one or two standoffish people (not rude) during the course of whole month. We went during the summer so didn’t see the Northern Lights but saw many other incredible sights. I find it incredulous that someone could find the Icelandic people “ridiculously rude” and everything in Iceland “ridiculously expensive”. Sounds like an entitled person who couldn’t plan their vacation properly and then by their own rude attitude turned the locals off. It’s a shame Rachael squandered her own vacation!
I just wrapped up a trip to Iceland as well. We had to be there at the same time as we got caught up in that history making storm as well.
I had the same feelings you did about the Northern Lights. We got to see them in Vik right behind Hotel Dyrholaey. Same experience as you with putting the Aurora App on my phone and constantly checking it. But I agree, if I...
I just wrapped up a trip to Iceland as well. We had to be there at the same time as we got caught up in that history making storm as well.
I had the same feelings you did about the Northern Lights. We got to see them in Vik right behind Hotel Dyrholaey. Same experience as you with putting the Aurora App on my phone and constantly checking it. But I agree, if I was out there already and didn't know to look with my camera lens we wouldn't have noticed it. I excepted it to be visible just by looking up. I can send you a few photos if you like of what we saw. This was the night of Oct 30.
Nice article! I saw the Northern lights in my local suburban neighborhood in New Jersey in October, 2024. They were beautiful and colorful just with the naked eye. The colors were deep pink/reddish and then green. They were fleeting though, maybe 10 minutes, so was glad I kept watching that evening, otherwise I would’ve missed them!
My trip to Iceland was way different. First, the ppl were ridiculously rude. Second, tried seeing the lights 3x.. everytime was rained out. Third, everything is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. It was a *never going back* vacation.
I was there the same week as you… my first time seeing the Northern Lights. And… how about that snow storm. Your photos are amazing!
We went to Alaska in January several years ago for the purpose of seeing the Northern Lights. We were on top of a bald area at Chena Hot Springs. They take you up there around 9:30 and you stay in a large round tent until someone comes in and shouts “they’re out!” Everyone rushes out and I am not seeing anything except what looks like whisky white clouds and I am saying I don’t see...
We went to Alaska in January several years ago for the purpose of seeing the Northern Lights. We were on top of a bald area at Chena Hot Springs. They take you up there around 9:30 and you stay in a large round tent until someone comes in and shouts “they’re out!” Everyone rushes out and I am not seeing anything except what looks like whisky white clouds and I am saying I don’t see them. Someone says look with your camera and the magic happened!! A number of years before we were in Alaska in late August at Denali. The Lodge would give ta weak up call if they were seem. We jump out of bed and throw on coats and go out and don’t see anything except a white haze. Wish I had known about the camera because it would have changed that white haze into a glorious color!!
Saw them here in Kansas. Went out to spot the ISS and the sky was pink!
We were there from 26 th September for 23 nights and saw them 20 nights . It’s a matter of putting in the hours to stay up and keep an eye out . Some nights we had a 49 min burst others it started at 7.45 and ended at 5am with no noticeable lulls. We had coronas , pulsatile and were amazed how little the moon interrupted our views. We saw every colour from the...
We were there from 26 th September for 23 nights and saw them 20 nights . It’s a matter of putting in the hours to stay up and keep an eye out . Some nights we had a 49 min burst others it started at 7.45 and ended at 5am with no noticeable lulls. We had coronas , pulsatile and were amazed how little the moon interrupted our views. We saw every colour from the most intense violet , magenta through to the aquamarines yellow red and obviously the most common green . It’s a numbers game more you can watch out the better . We stay in countryside in Airbnbs and have never had to drive out at night to see them . The problem with later like last year and this year snow can stop you in your tracks and one of our flights last year with Iceland air home was cancelled so you can imagine it was bad weather ! We use space weather live as it’s obviously satellite information and is pretty accurate to 49 mins. Other apps also have people posting live so you can see immediately if sightings have started. There are places in south and west that clear when other laces don’t and we stay at multiple houses during our stay .
Well, I've seen the northern lights many times - sometimes you only see silvery white with the naked eye and need the camera to pick up the colour, or with stronger displays you absolutely do see vivid greens, reds and even purple with the naked eye! Sometimes it feels like they are crashing down upon you from above and you almost want to duck! I'm sorry, but so far you have only seen a couple...
Well, I've seen the northern lights many times - sometimes you only see silvery white with the naked eye and need the camera to pick up the colour, or with stronger displays you absolutely do see vivid greens, reds and even purple with the naked eye! Sometimes it feels like they are crashing down upon you from above and you almost want to duck! I'm sorry, but so far you have only seen a couple of (relatively) weak displays, so please don't think you always need a camera to see the bright colours and have an amazing experience.
You will not always need a phone. The most important aspect is that you need to escape light pollution. Some of the most beautiful and complete Auroras can be seen without aid of technology. We have seen full on ribbons, dancing, streaking, waves and Coronas in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and from the beautiful lakes of Manitowish Waters WI. Keep hunting, go North and you will be amazed. So happy you had the chance to see a great natural phenomena. Cheers
Congratulations Ben ! You have seen a wonder of our Universe. It was explained to us in northern Sweden, these waves are all over Earth, but with all the interference we don't see them.
Unfortunately, your experience wasn't a good one. I traveled to Tromsø last year and got to see the lights several days in a row. For one, being around the light pollution of the middle of a city isn't going to do you any favors for how bright you can see them. Second, yes, there are times when low geomagnetic conditions will just give you the "ghostly" lights that are only vibrant through a camera exposure,...
Unfortunately, your experience wasn't a good one. I traveled to Tromsø last year and got to see the lights several days in a row. For one, being around the light pollution of the middle of a city isn't going to do you any favors for how bright you can see them. Second, yes, there are times when low geomagnetic conditions will just give you the "ghostly" lights that are only vibrant through a camera exposure, but there are many occasions where the lights can be very bright and provide illumination much like a full moon can. My trip to Tromsø provided such an event. With the right conditions, a decent distance from light pollution, and(ideally) timing during a new moon, you can experience them extremely bright to the human eye.
To be honest you didn't really enjoy the northern lights in the best conditions, watching them by just walking out of the hotel is definitely not the best point of view.
Usually one drives far away from the city lights and then watches them in the middle of the nature, the lights are a strong green with pink tales when waving
watching them from a hotel is like watching them on your computer
I do like your content, but sometimes titles could use some editing. You could have just said what this "one thing" is. I already guessed it before reading the article, but I don't appreciate curiosity gap tactics.
Glad you got to see the Northern Lights finally Ben! I have been plotting a trip to Iceland in winter to see them (and would still like to go some day), but I feel a bit better now reading this. I saw them here in Oregon earlier this year (when they were unusually far south), but it was a dim red-green glow to the north until I held up my iPhone and then it looked...
Glad you got to see the Northern Lights finally Ben! I have been plotting a trip to Iceland in winter to see them (and would still like to go some day), but I feel a bit better now reading this. I saw them here in Oregon earlier this year (when they were unusually far south), but it was a dim red-green glow to the north until I held up my iPhone and then it looked amazing.
I was thinking maybe they were "better" further north in Iceland or Alaska. Doesn't seem like they are really brighter there per se, but still beautiful. It's just our human eyes can't perceive all of it no matter where they are
It's not just the northern lights. So much in photography now is exaggerated. A lot of photos are heavily edited. Anytime you see extremely bright saturated colors the publisher probably amp it up with hdr. Astrophotograhy is always heavily edited with photography. If you see the milky way in the photo you know it's edited because we can't see it with our eyes. It will get worse with AI editing in photoshop to the point where more of the photo is fake VS real.
Yes, that was my experience too! I saw the Northern Lights on back to back nights in northern Norway (Tromso) in January. I was surprised the sky looked like darker and lighter shades of gray until I took a photo. In some cases I could see a faint green cast, and regardless I could definitely see the movement as the bands crossed where we were. Amazing experience, but different than I expected.
They absolutely can be brighter! The camera trick does “decode” them but on days with a strong storm they are absolutely bright and clear to the naked eye.
Living in Alaska we have plenty of chances to see them in the winter. It’s cloud a lot but they are out at least once a week. Locals often don’t even look up anymore.
Congratulations Ben. Seeing any aurora, whether Northern or Southern, is one of the experiences I most want to get. So I am curious, what app did you use to check for auroral displays?
Reminds me of my evil ex. We "had" to walk up the Eiffel Tower. Not the least bit impressive. I enjoyed my time in Iceland. Northern lights have no interest for me.
Congratulations! I finally got to see Northern Lights last New Years Eve, in northern Norway, and it will surely remain a lifetime highlight.
Seconding what another poster said: the lights CAN be as bright as what you see in your camera -- for us, they were. The surprise to me was the opposite: I expected that the camera made them seem far brighter, but it all comes down to light pollution. There's too much in...
Congratulations! I finally got to see Northern Lights last New Years Eve, in northern Norway, and it will surely remain a lifetime highlight.
Seconding what another poster said: the lights CAN be as bright as what you see in your camera -- for us, they were. The surprise to me was the opposite: I expected that the camera made them seem far brighter, but it all comes down to light pollution. There's too much in that part of Iceland for your eyes to separate the aurora from everything else. But head to the northern part of the country, or somewhere else far, far away from any cities whatsoever, and they will be bright enough to read by.
Now you need to try to catch the aurora australis, and complete the set!
Agree. We were in Iceland in September and our guide said “Tonight’s the best chance”. He took us about an hour out of Reykjavík, and watching his app, he told us to wait about 25 minutes. It was a little spooky. Pitch black out. And then it happened. It was almost as great with the naked eye as either his powerful camera. My husband said it makes up for all the dolphin, whale and bear tours with no success.
+1 It's true that sometimes they can look this impressive without a camera. For us they were in Tromso. Sometimes they look more grey than green without a camera but when it's really dark and they get going it can look amazing without a lens.
Being a ‘when-I’, that is when I was on OPS in the Arctic, as well as the Antarctic, aurora borealis and aurora australis were sights to behold. Even more remarkable was the experience when one was under a metre, or so, of snow. Being holed up in a snow hole OP, one would hardly have expected the intense light to penetrate so far. Green or pink skinned ‘maggot’ dwellers were no a pretty sight.
As a kid growing up in Minnesota I would seem them on occasion. But the best view ever was on an overnight winter flight on NW (gawd I miss that company) between DTW and FRA, Mid flight the Captain came on the PA to announce the northern lights off the left side of the plane. With no light pollution they were strikingly beautiful. I’m glad that you and Ford finally had a chance to see them too!
Did you just use your iPhone camera, and did you have to change any settings to capture the northern lights?
Perhaps this satisfies your Northern Lights fix, but you may also want to consider Norway's Coastal Express ferry up/down their Atlantic coast in winter (or in summer but without the lights).
We had the same experience in northern Norway last March. The northern lights were VERY dim to the naked eye but were much brighter and more vivid when viewed with our S23+ phones.
Aurora can be, so bright that snow all around is green, that's of course in winter. My best places are Fairbanks area and about an hour from Tromso.
Minnesotan here, can also confirm northern lights can be extremely bright. Have seen the entire sky illuminated, like a green cover over a snow globe. Absolutely breathtaking.
That's my experience as well, the actual northern lights I saw was very dim, however when I used a camera with 10 seconds shutter then it was very vibrant and bright on the picture.
When I went in Iceland in 2023 and saw the Lights it was breathtaking to the naked eye. We saw them move! With that said, the photos make them look even MORE impressive than they were, but was still mighty impressive
I know there are several aurora apps in the app store but does anyone know which app is shown in the post?
I'm not sure what Ben used, but I would recommend Aurora Pro. Handy app that includes location based notifications to alert you when the activity is increasing.
If you really want to start dorking out, you can bookmark and frequently check SpaceWeather dot com for information and forecasts.
Thanks, will check these out
Did you just stop accepting comments on your EDITION stay? Because I’ve tried to comment and it just didn’t go through
Having seen the lights maybe a few hundred times, would suggest maybe trying to see them again somewhere.
Especially once your eyes are adjusted to the darkness, a multi-color aurora dancing above your head can be breathtaking.
Some phones recognize specific situations and use AI to fill in details that are not visible (do not exist) to create pseudo-photographs.
Most notable are iPhone photographs of the moon.
Norther lights can be very bright, depending on location and intensity. So sometimes they can actually get as strong as the pictures you've seen
funnily enough the only time I've seen the Northern Lights (barely) was from the Texas Hill Country
Grew up in Alaska for a lot of my life and we spent a lot of time at our remote cabin, so good viewing opportunities. I had the opposite issue. At the time, I could never capture the beauty on my camera, but they were spectacular to the naked eye. Probably nowadays I could capture something better. For you, it may have also been the time of year, light pollution, strength, etc. Maybe a winter trip to Alaska will be on the bucket list for you and Ford!
Alaskan here- sometimes they’re bright enough to turn your headlights off and drive by their light.
@AK
Where in Alaska and what time of the year would you recommend? They are on my bucket list, but I am only interested in seeing them with the naked eye.
Interior AK, Fairbanks as a start, then any short highway drive from there. Winter is when it’s dark. As far as aurora activity, that’s a weather thing.
Alaskan here as well. Interior.
The green lights in bens pictures are fairly common. I see them so often, I really don't pay attention anymore. When the reds and blues come up, that's something to see.
"Laying in bed"? TMI
How is that TMI, Ross?
Could be wrong, but I think he's making a grammar joke: you aren't 'laying in bed', you're 'lying in bed. 'Laying' would be ... well... yeah.
"Laying" would be a very minor and rather commonplace grammatical error that should really not be attracting this much commentary. English is full of these pesky rules that can catch-out even highly literate native speakers.
I lie down.
I am lying down.
This afternoon, I will lie down.
Yesterday, I lay down.
“Laying” is American English.
There is grammar, and there is vocabulary. English verbs have far fewer rules than most languages. As you point out, the past tense of one verb (intransitive) can be the same as the present tense of another (transitive). If I said I could excuse native speakers who don't know the difference, I would be lying.
Lucky, this is why I love your blog. I can feel your joy.
I have the same experience as you but they can sometimes be brighter even for a naked eye. I saw them very colourful on a plane to TOS in 2016. Then when I was actually in TOS I saw them just as a very weak shade.
The 2024 Gannon storm did absolutely light up the night sky in a spectacular fashion, no camera needed. It was visible in the continental United States.
But a G5 storm like that is very rare.
Those are some awesome shots! I’d be curious if there was enough light pollution in the area to make it harder to see the northern lights with the naked eye. I’m sure it was pretty limited around there but maybe just enough to cause trouble.