We spent a few days in early October exploring one of our favorites places in the world, Iceland! And during the trip, we actually saw the Northern Lights twice – once in Reykjavik and once in the Vik area of South Eastern Iceland. In many different trips to Iceland, as well as doing a Northern Lights tour that wasn’t successful in February, here are my trips to see the Northern Lights in Iceland and how to explore by yourself and see this incredible phenomenon.
You Don’t Always have to Leave Reykjavik
A lot of Northern Lights tour companies tout that you have to leave the city to see the Northern Lights and that is partly true. You might see them brighter in other areas of the countryside, but they are possible to see right in Reykjavik. We’ve had luck right on the water down by the Harpa (near the Edition Hotel) as well as at the Grotta Lighthouse that’s a short drive from downtown Reykjavik. The biggest thing is that you can’t have cloud cover – even if there are some clouds and openings, that’s ok, but if it’s a cloudy evening, you won’t see them. So watch the weather forecast.
Use your Camera to Spot Them
Once you go out to spot the Northern Lights, you can use your phone camera to take pictures of the night sky and even if not visible to the naked eye, if they are there, the camera will spot them. We would take photos at different places in the night sky to see if we saw anything. This last time, we were actually about to get up and leave and Nick saw something through his camera so we stayed and we got a great lightshow.
Go and Wait.
We found in October that 10pm was the time we saw them both nights. It was dark enough to see them but honestly it’s a waiting game. We bundled up, went out and got a spot to sit, and waited. Pro tip – in the winter, take “hot hands” warming bags to keep warm while you wait.
Watch the KP Index and Interplanetary Magnetic Field Guides
There are a ton of Aurora Tracking websites but I found I preferred the Perlan one the best. The things you want to check are 1) cloud cover to make sure the weather forecast is good and there will be enough openings, 2) the KP Index usually needs to be over 5 for them to be visible and 3) the Interplanetary Magnetic Field usually need to be above 0 for them to be visible. Our second night in the Vik area, we waited inside until the magnetic field went over 0 and sure enough, as soon as it did, we went out and had quite a show.
Even if you can only see them in the camera, it’s still incredible.
Both nights that we saw them this trip, they went in and out of visibility so sometimes we could only tell it was the aurora through the camera. Sometimes it just looks like a cloud on the horizon and is more gray than green, but put your camera up and you’ll be blown away. So even if you just see them through the camera, it’s still pretty incredible!
Headed to Iceland?