Well, it's been a while since I regaled you with a tale from my travels this September, so here is the story about how Jason and I kind-of saw the Northern Lights.
When we visited Iceland, our ship's route from Reykjavik (RAKE-ya-vik) to Akureyri (Ack-er-RARE-ee) would take us across the Arctic Circle overnight. Jason and I bundled up and braved the wind to go up to the top deck of the bow and try to see the Northern Lights.
It was very cloudy and foggy that night - wisps of cloud were passing very close over the top of the ship. We stood out there for a while, gazing out at the horizon. It was about an hour after sunset and we weren't sure if it was dark enough to see the Aurora yet. We were also concerned it was too overcast.
There was a large group up there as well, many of them armed with professional-level photography equipment. At various times, they'd point excitedly up above us, but Jason and I realized what they were seeing was the low wisps of fog catching in the ships lights.
Not a great picture, but it’s the best one we were able to get.
We started to think that we just weren't going to see anything at all, staring out in front of us at the pale light on the horizon that we assumed was just the last dregs of the sunset. That was when we realized that we were heading due north - the light ahead of us couldn't be a reflection of the setting sun on the clouds. We looked closer and watched for a few more minutes. The very pale, very subtle bluish light would shift a little. We weren't sure if we were seeing a gap in the clouds, or if maybe a very bright aurora above was shining through the cloud cover.
Seeing how it very much resembled the first light of dawn or the last light of sunset, I understand a bit more now how it got the name Aurora Borealis - "Northern Dawn" in Latin.
The next morning, Jason and found certificates on our door, congratulating us on having crossed the Arctic Circle.
