Astrophotos: Northern Lights Over Iceland

By Nancy Atkinson - January 30, 2013 02:17 AM UTC | Observing

Photographer

Jack Fusco

recently took a trip to Iceland, hoping to capture the unique Icelandic landscapes and night skies but ran into bad weather. "The weather wasn't favorable for photography during the day and the skies completely cloud covered at night," Jack said on Flickr, "and the last night I spent in Iceland was the only night that I was able to see the stars." But what a night it was!

"I wasn't completely sure what the Northern Lights would look like when I saw them, but when I first spotted them streaking across the sky I could hardly contain my excitement. I may not have gotten to photograph all of the spots that I had hoped, but on this night, for me, I felt like I truly had found something incredible," he said, and the experience reminded him of Carl Sagan's words, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

[caption id="attachment_99667" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption= "The Northern Lights fill the Icelandic Sky on 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco."]

[/caption]

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you're giving us permission to post them). Please explain what's in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com