Hello travel junkies! You would have seen that I visited Iceland and had an amazing time! I had 2 main reasons for visiting Iceland and one of them was to see the northern lights. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the full experience and I’m here to share what no one tells you about the northern lights.
What No One tells you about the Northern Lights
It’s Down to Science
Firstly, there are specific times of the year in which you can only properly see the Northern Lights. Late August to mid-April are the best months to view this natural phenomena. The lights are created by solar winds which come into contact with the earth’s magnetic field. You know the thing that protects our planet from what’s outside. The winds gets pulled towards the poles which is why you only see them in Iceland, Finland, Norway, Scotland and Canada.
Darkness is Your Friend
Christmas lights look dreamy when it’s night time. It’s the same with the northern lights. You don’t need to be freezing cold to see them but you do need it to be dark. Not just your regular, lights out dark, nope it needs to be just about pitch black. Light pollution is not your friend if you want to see these lights. Hence you won’t generally see them in a city. We drove out to the middle of a field far away from Reykjavik.
Full Moons are not your friend
I love the moon. It does amazing magnet force pulls on earth and it’s pretty! However, a full moon is not your friend when you want to see the Northern lights. The night we went out, it was a super moon and it decided that it wanted to be ‘the only show’. The lights did show up as you can see but it was no match for the moon. A spectacular show because it looks like a sunset instead of a moon rise.
The major take away for me when it came to the Northern lights is that nature is the one running the show. You can’t make something happen and even though I was disappointed, it was still worthwhile. That’s all I’ve got for you today. Did you learn something new in my, what no one tells you about the northern lights? Let me know in the comments below.
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