The goal was to photograph the starry sky, milky way and, if possible, some Northern lights. In our mind: nice starscapes over Malla and cool timelapses. The only time-frame to do so was Christmas week, due to our regular jobs.
So there we’re in Kilpisjärvi, the 24th of December. Six hours late, after the train broke down (-37 celsius), the moon almost full = no way to get any decent shot at the milky way, and very low solar activity according to NOAA’s three day projections = no much hope for northern lights. I started beating myself: "I should know better and had taken all this under consideration beforehand!"
Let’s go outside anyway; maybe shooting some timelapses we might catch a faint northern light. The camera stays on the lake and its time to go inside and check compulsively the real-time magnetic disturbance bars (updated every 10’) in the online service “Auroras now!” . One hour after I check the camera, the remote’s battery was dead after few photos (-30 celsius). No timelapses neither.
But it wasn’t all bad; actually the full moon produced quite a nice light on the night landscape. Perhaps there was some hope to get a few nice shots after all.
In my obsession with the night sky I forgot how nice is also the Kaamos light, when the sun is close the horizon producing this continuous twightlight.
By then we were back to a state of optimism, enjoying the experience. The second night we had more modest goals, no remote/no timelapses, just Kilpisjärvi under the moonlight, no keeping track of magnetic activity either. Just embracing what was at hand.
“Do NOT ask and you’ll be given” one could say because the green lights started dancing before our lenses. Just an unexpected 20 minutes burst of activity. Moving and beautiful.
What can we expect when planning properly? Looking forward to our next stay in Kilpisjärvi, being sure that is always going to be worth. No matter what the expectations are.
There are some more shots at our Flickr’s gallery, additional ones might be appearing as we edit the remaining material.