My first time seeing the Northern Lights was incredible!

What a week it has been! I woke up Monday morning in Berlin, Germany. By Tuesday evening, I was in a town in northern Norway called Øresvik. It was there that I had an experience I will remember for the rest of my life: seeing the Aurora Borealis for the first time.

I could not have asked for a better experience of it. On Thursday afternoon, I noticed that the skies were still partly cloudy, and the clouds were moving quite slowly. But over the ridge to the east, there were only clear skies, and they were headed the right direction! The clouds began clearing at around 2pm and were pretty much gone by the end of the sunset over the beautiful pointed mountains just across the fjord (around 5pm). This already felt to me like a sign that something special was coming. Everything was lining up just right!

Here is what the sunset looked like from about 3pm to 5pm:

Once the sun went down, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had high hopes of course but knew there are never any guarantees with something like the aurora. If I was going to see it, would it happen right away, or would I have to sit outside for hours waiting?

Luckily for me, that question was answered quite quickly as a subtle yet definite glow began protruding from over the mountain ridge to the north almost immediately after sundown. That was it! The aurora! It found me!

The first sight of the aurora looked a bit like straws of light popping up from behind the mountain. Did you spot the Big Dipper?

I was already beaming with satisfaction that I had seen even a small part of this incredible phenomenon, but little did I know it was just getting started. Within the next couple of hours, powerful streaks of light began emerging from the northwest. This gave me the perfect chance to experiment with the photography equipment I had brought along. I am a complete novice when it comes to photographs, but after some trial and error, I managed to get a halfway decent shot of me with the aurora in the background:

A little while after that, a streak of light stretching across the entire sky from west to easy formed. I had only expected to see light over the ridge to the north, so this was a pleasant surprise! At times, the light was so strong that it lit up the water in the fjord pretty well in my photographs:

This streak of light streched all the way from one horizon to the other and was quite bright.

It’s experiences like this that remind me what a treasure our beautiful planet is. I feel very lucky to have experienced this, and I really look forward to going “hunting” for the aurora again this winter.

I am also wrapping up a film showing what I captured that I hope to post here Tuesday evening, so follow my blog to see it first! I’m really pleased with how it is looking and promise you won’t be disappointed!

Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started by Oliver Koch and Mike Voellmecke. In addition to the Steemit blog, we post weekly short films of our adventures to our Adventure Every Day YouTube channel. You can also find us on Facebook, and be sure not to miss Oliver's incredible photography on Instagram.