Experiencing the Northern Lights with your own eyes is certainly one of the most spectacular things you can experience in nature.

The Northern Lights typically occur in the polar regions of our Earth and are a phenomenon that can be seen in both the Northern Hemisphere (Aurora borealis - Northern Lights) and the Southern Hemisphere (Aurora australis - Southern Lights). Energetic particles from the sun strike the Earth. These particles are redirected by the Earth's magnetic field to the polar regions, where the interaction between the particles from the sun and the Earth's magnetic field creates the striking luminous phenomena.

The northern lights are most often green, less frequently red, and especially rarely blue. From my own experience, I can say that the northern lights are often perceived only as a gray veil in the sky. Often, only a photograph reveals that they are the northern lights and not cirrus clouds.

In 2018, my wife and I made our first trip to the Lofoten Islands in Norway to see the spectacle. The Northern Lights weren't the sole reason for our trip to this archipelago in northern Norway. Nevertheless, we had certain expectations or hopes of seeing this "rare" natural spectacle. We weren't disappointed. Every evening, we checked the aurora and weather apps on our phones. Because, in addition to solar activity, the sky also needs to be clear to see the lights in the sky. We spent many evenings and nights in the car and outdoors, far away from light pollution. On some days, we were extremely lucky; the solar activity and clear skies provided us with fantastic views of the Northern Lights. We experienced lights in every imaginable form on this trip, from green bands to pulsating red phenomena, with constantly changing shapes. Photographically, the trip wasn't particularly successful. My camera went swimming after two or three days, so photography had a relatively quick end. We were extremely excited by the Northern Lights and definitely wanted to experience the spectacle again.

Two years later, the time had come. We traveled to Lofoten again to hunt for the Northern Lights. Although we had a great time in Norway, we didn't see any Northern Lights on this trip. Only on one evening did we see a faint green glow peeking through the clouds.

Two years later, we wanted to try our luck again. This time we wanted to see the Northern Lights in Iceland. We had to cancel our trip to Iceland at the time due to the number of covid cases and the entry regulations. Another year later, we tried again and made it to Iceland in the winter of 2023. The trip to Iceland was marked by extreme weather. Our flight was delayed by 12 hours due to a severe storm, and in Iceland, too, we experienced severe storms and road closures. Our trip required some adjustments on site. However, we did not see the Northern Lights on this trip. Only on one single evening did we see a gray veil in the sky, which only the camera identified as the Northern Lights. We experienced and saw a lot on this trip, Episode 1 -Unexpected happened on this trip , but we did not see the Northern Lights.

At the beginning of 2024, we made another trip to the far north. This time we went to Finnish Lapland. Lapland's winters are usually characterized by a more stable climate than coastal Norway or Iceland. While we were in Lapland, the region was hit by an unusual warm front. During our time there, it was very cloudy, but one evening the weather promised clear skies. That evening, we first experienced a stunning sunset on a mountain peak near our accommodation. Quite fascinated and also quite frozen, we trudged back to the car in our snowshoes. It was time for dinner. We already knew that we had a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights that evening.

The weather forecast predicted only a few small patches of cloud cover, and the forecast for the Northern Lights was also very good. As we've done so many other evenings, we regularly checked the apps and webcam images...and there they were: Northern Lights on almost all the webcams.