Norway, Bodø
26/1-2013
The remains of the solar wind that struck our magnetic field between the 25th/26th still gave me some awesome Northern Lights show yesterday evening !

I had no plans about going out, but suddenly there was a lead prediction for a active show in 50 minutes (KP5) ! The weather was forcasted to be cloudy and snowing, but none of that weather had yet happend ! I had a clear sky filled with stars and bright light from the fullmoon !
So i checked my gear, got dressed up and went out again ! Just stepped out of the door i could see a weak long line of lights from east to west
I started driving the usual road, and thought that i wanted to go to the northern side of town, the local palces Mjelle and Festvag.
When i got to Løpsmarka where you can see the Landegode Island it was surronded with weak lines, so i parked at the parking spot there where i have shot a lot of pictures before and did some again !
But I told myself about the lead prediction and i wanted to get some better pictures of the landscape at Mjelle ! so I kept on driving !
Second stop was at Mjelle, did some few pictures there from a top. It was new powder snow everywhere, that reached me up above my knees ! The only bad thing was that i couldn`t see the hard ice below the snow, so I fell over a couple of times there !
But no problems with my camera gear !
Having bin around Mjelle for allmost a half hour the lights had not kicked in yet So i started checking predictions, and it was still ment to be active lights. So i drove to the original planned destination. When I arrived at my third parking spot I walked up on a top beside the road. From there i had a clear view to Valviktinden and Steigtind peak, surronded with a great landscape covered in snow !
The Lights where still just weak lines arround me, 3 or 4 lines. I shot some pictures with different settings to find a good exposure for the snow and if the lights where going to be extreme !

After 15 minutes of waiting there, suddenly to the west of the peak Steigtind a line filled with 5,6 rays with good distance between each of them started to lit up and move quite fast ! I pointed the camera at them and started firing away some pictures !
In no time and from nowhere as usual with this awesome phenomen it lit up the whole place with strong, intense, vibrant and fast moving Northern Lights ! I got pictures of the Valviktinden peak as i wanted, even got some new of Steigtind peak ! This was the prediction it was only 15,20 minutes later then predicted. I was at the right place to the right time with my patient for capturing a new set of good pictures, which i got !
I had my 3 hours of photographing the lights this evening again, the weather was all clear, the fullmoon gave bright light and life to the winterlandscape where the snow reflected some light !
I saw the clouds waiting at the coast. When the auroras got weak again, into this massive "aftershow" the clouds started moving in, so i got my open window of clear weather and a great show, the second time in a week !

Have a nice week everyone !
For more of my aurora pictures, please see my gallery :
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