Lofoten Islands Northern Lights

Lofoten islands northern lights Reine

Photo: Northern lights fill sky over Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

Out of 12 nights on the islands I only saw a minor display of the northern lights – aurora borealis on February 6th.  Most every other night of my trip the sky was cloudy and thus not very conductive to northern lights watching.   Capturing a photo of the lights over Reine, or more specifically the mountain peak Olstind is an image that has been on my mind for a while.  I think I came close, but the aurora wasn’t particularly bright so I’ll have to be back to try again.  As luck would have it, I missed a fantastic display of the lights just two days after I left the islands.  In addition to missing a good display that occurred at the end of January.

I’m of a sort of mixed opinion as to how good the Lofoten Islands are as a location for viewing the Northern Lights.  While snow covered mountain peaks rising out of the sea make for perhaps some of the best subjects to include in a photo of the northern lights, the weather on Lofoten greatly diminishes ones chance of seeing the lights.  I’d say that if you have 2+ weeks and want to see/photograph the northern lights than Lofoten Islands would be a good location.  If you’re time is limited to under a week, then it would probably be better to look to northern Sweden or Finland where the chances of having clear skies are much higher.  It doesn’t matter active the sun is, if the night sky is full of clouds, as it was 10 of 12 nights for my last trip, you’re not going to see anything.

 

Lofoten islands northern lights Reine

Photo: Northern Lights over Olstind, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

3 replies
  1. Carolina says:

    Still, these photos are breathtakingly beautiful. I’m sorry you missed a more spectacular show. I’ve been outside in January to try and spot some of the Northern Lights, but the skies were full of clouds here too. I thought I spotted something in between some of the clouds, but can’t be sure it was Northern Lights.
    I really, truly enjoy your stories and photos.

  2. Xingyuan Wang says:

    Really like the second photo, and I’m also impressed that the Aurora is visible even with the city lights in the foreground! One of the nice things about shooting in Lofoten is that light pollution is hardly present.

  3. KYO says:

    Unbelievable! It’s gorgeous and awesome. I’d been traveled to Reine June 2011. Hope someday I can saw the Aurora as you seen there!

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