Sunday, March 24, 2013

Email from Iceland - Northern Lights






To be honest, no one that I know have been to Iceland and seen the Northern Lights.  Norway is a better bet, I was told. 

But as luck would have it, I so happen to be out there on the night when the stuff from the recent solar flare reached Earth.

It started even before the sun has fully set.  Nothing much, really, hardly perceptible. It looked more like some leftover wisp of cloud.  And it disappeared instantly. Is that all?  I wondered.
 
As the night darkens, the wisps started to be more frequent and stayed longer in the sky.  Then, it started moving about.  Some streaked across the sky and some seems to drop to the horizon.  Then I thought, Yeah, OK, like that only ah?   

Then, as though the sky heard me - the real show started.  It was as though someone has turned on the switch.  Green lights started to appear everywhere, as though the sky has split open, the light from the other side seeped through the darkness. 






I stood there in awe, cold and trembling, but awe-stricken.  Everywhere around me was a dazzling display of dancing lights among the familiar stars that twinkled so brightly in the cold clear winter night. 






 Am I still looking at the same sky?  



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