Iceland: Northern Lights (2)

It was last October and our last stop in Iceland. We checked into the hotel in Reykjavik about 4 pm and booked the northern lights tour for 7:30 pm. 

 

The tour bus picked me up at 7:30 pm and changed to a big tour bus at bus station.  There were about 30 people in the tour.  The Bus took us to a site about 40 km (~50 minutes ride) away from Reykjavík near Thingvellir NP.  The tour guide/driver told us the site is tour groups favorite spot with low wind and very dark.  He also said the last 3 times he took tour group to see NL without luck, which has never happened since he started do the guid 3 years ago.  About 20 minutes from the destination, we have already seen northern lights through side window and I took several pictures which showed the characteristic green hue.  We all are excited.  The KP was 5 tonight (on scale of 0-9, high numbers 8-9 almost never occurs) which does not happen often. KP is usually 1-2.  When last time KP d was 5, it was a month ago.  

 

NL was obviously strong tonight we could see a white bend on the northeast side above the mountain.  NL was steady white bend as I have learned from the previous experience in this trip. I took several dozen pictures and the bend started to fade and move to south.  I thought it was done for tonight.  I felt stomach pain and decided to returned to the bus to rest a little bit.  I do not have this problem usually and it must be due to the cold weather (-2 C) and the intense pressure to take a lots of pictures. About 10 minutes later, the NL started to grow strongly again the northeast side of the sky.  My stomach was feeling little better, so I gathered my camera and tripod and got out of the bus.  NL started to become alive: it moves across the sky one side to another.  It dances quickly.  It could be seen with naked eyes and people cheers as the NL perform the fire works show in dark sky.  We spent about 90 minutes watching NL.  I took more than 100 pictures.