Friday Photo #721 – Looking Up

Photo: Red and green northern lights rise into sky over Stornappstinden, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 10, 2026. 21:58

Here is another image from the colorful aurora of a couple weekends ago (Friday Photo #719). By this time I had made my way down the road to Storsandnes beach.

The aurora had mostly been a soft, glowing green for a while before this image. I was getting a little on the cold side and about ready to head back home when suddenly the energy increased again and a corona began to rise in the southern sky.

Storsandnes works best for small to moderate aurora, where they keep to the northern part of the sky. Switching overhead and towards the south doesn’t leave much options other than to kinda just point the camera up towards Stornappstind. One benefit of the last year’s road works is that the power line above the beach have now been taken down, so it is a little cleaner of an image now. Though in this image, they probably wouldn’t have been visible anyhow.

Storsandnes beach is still going to remain a difficult location for aurora during my winter guiding season. The ongoing construction of Nappstraumen tunnel make it difficult to access from the Leknes area (the tunnel closes from 23:00 – 06:00 – with only one passage at 02:00). While from the Reine area, it is just a long drive. So I’ll just have to head there on the few occasions I’m home.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 2500
f2
6 Seconds
WB Daylight