the first batch of Norway photos. Not quite on the ground yet: these are all from my insane amount of flying, from San Diego, to Chicago, to Oslo, and finally to Tromsø.
Northern lights! We’re not in Norway yet, and there they are. Mission accomplished, a whopping eight or so hours into the expedition – before the first official night, even. Don’t mind the Brownian star tracks: I managed to keep the camera still relative to the airplane quite nicely, but the airplane of course was moving. Note the purple fringe on the right in the northern lights. Green is the usual color – purple is rather uncommon.
About one-third of the way from Oslo to Tromsø. That nearby peak in the center is at least forty miles away.
Landing in Tromsø. One can see the runway at lower right.
This is definitely not Norway. We haven’t even gotten to Chicago yet – this is somewhere over Utah.
Coming in for a landing in Chicago.
SAS Airlines to Stockholm.
Sunset, somewhere over Ontario. I have no idea why I like this photo, but I do. It’s blown out half to kingdom come, but hey … shiny.
Green flash! Second time I’ve managed to get that at sunset. First time from an airplane, for sure.
SAS’s ideas of major world cities: Los Angeles! Mexico City! Havana!
… Newark.
More northern lights. I used a pair of pillows to mask out as much reflecting cabin light as I could. Didn’t help with regard to the moon!
More great world cities: Stuttgart, Stockholm of course… Casablanca… Newark.
We’re passing Iceland now – see the orange lights on the horizon; that’s Reykjavik about 100 miles to the north.
Moonrise. Yep, at the same time as sunrise – impressive for a near-quarter moon. Hooray for extreme latitudes, where celestial bodies track in really strange ways. Recall the moon photo a from a few hours before, and a few time zones away: the moon ducked under the horizon for an hour or so.
Landed safely in Stockholm. Here’s a billboard that discusses the USA. Land of 14 million Swedish invaders! I’m not 100% sure what it says, as my Swedish is just barely to the east of nonexistent. Hey, look over there, an umlaut!
Having learned some Swedish, it’s time to head to Oslo. Yep, that’s a halo around the sun in the upper left corner. And a cloud cover in Scandinavia in general.
On the way to Tromsø – the last leg of the flight, and soon we’ll be on the ground.
Mmm… pointy.
Now getting very close to Tromsø. Here, we get all the elements of the Norwegian outdoors: high cirrus clouds; sharp, snow-covered peaks; and the obligatory set of fjords.
Red clouds at … noon? Gotta love high latitudes.
The main bridge that connects the two halves of Tromsø.
And this was the last photo I took from the air. So, we leave off here for now.
