Northern Lights

One of the attractions on offer with our adventure holiday was the opportunity to view the Northern Lights.  The only problem with this is that they can not be guaranteed and are as fickle as the weather.  Nevertheless, this year is near to a sunspot maximum, which increases the likelihood of an Aurora display, and the weather was favorable in that the night skies were clear of cloud for most of our stay.  The only drawback was that there was a very bright full moon, which tended to drown out anything else in the sky while it was above the horizon.
So every evening after 10pm I stuck my head out of our cabin door to see if there was any aurora action.  For the first four nights  - nothing.  On our final night there was an organised activity optimistically named: "Northern Lights viewing expedition", which involved a trek through the woods to a spot on the lake where there was no light pollution. Once there we sat round a camp file on reindeer skins and waited for something to happen.  I decided to get some night sky shots in anyway, with or without the aurora, and started to set up my gear.  As I was wrestling with the controls on my camera, the others spotted that the northern sky had lit up with the greenish glow of the Northern Lights.   So we did strike lucky in the end and got to see this amazing natural phenomenon.
Later on when we got back to the cabin I did manage to get my camera lens sorted out and had a more relaxed chance to get some pictures. Not perhaps as spectacular as can be seen on some occasions when the aurora puts on a multi-coloured display right overhead, but a perfect end to a great adventure holiday and birthday treat.