The sky was so clear and the weather so still this evening that I went out at 19:05 UTC even though there didn’t seem to be much aurora activity. The view along the northerly horizon from my usual location is blocked by mountains, so I am not always able to see the very weak activity that is located north of Iceland. So I have to be patient and wait for the activity to increase sufficiently for me to start to see the aurora arc rise above the mountains. The bright moonlight on this night also did not help with detecting weak aurora activity. I didn’t see anything definite prior to popping home at 19:30, but by the time I came back to my site at 20:15 UTC then a bright low arc of aurora was easily visible by eye along the top of the mountains (Image 1). Even with low exposures of just a few seconds, the bright moonlight made the landscape seem like daylight! The aurora became more vivid and also rose a little in the sky over the next 15 min (Images 2 and 3). The brightest spell came after 20:35, when some movement of the aurora band was apparent (Image 4). The arc remained visible for the remainder of the evening until I stopped looking out at approximately 22:00.
Image 1. 20:15 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, ISO3200, 14 mm, 6 sec.
Image 2. 20:21 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, ISO3200, 14 mm, 8.2 sec.
Image 3. 20:31 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, ISO3200, 14 mm, 7.4 sec.
Image 4. 20:40 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, ISO3200, 14 mm, 5.7 sec.
