Aðaldalshraun All-Sky Camera

News: December 2025

November turned out to be an absolutely stunning month for aurora. When I get some time, I'm going to put together highlights of each month and create a dedicated page, but for now you can see the archive here.

I tinkered with some nichrome wire last month and was quite impressed with how it performs as a heating element. I fitted a couple of hand-wound coils in each camera housing and was very surprised with the results. Despite both very low temperatures, then high temperatures with high humidity, I've seen no condensation or icing on any camera.

I'll post a few pictures and maybe a bit more detail at some point, as I think it's a simple and efficient way of keeping a clear lens.

So back to December. Gleðileg Jól, as they say up here.

Not a great start — the moon has dominated the first week or so, and the cloud has just been sat here for days now. But through broken cloud the aurora can look just as impressive.

The day continues to shorten; practically as soon as it gets light it starts to get dark, but December is always the darkest month.

Apparently there are a couple of good meteor showers due in December, so I'm hoping to capture some of that. That definitely would be nice.

Trips to the cabin will be relatively infrequent for the next couple of months. It's running itself very nicely at the moment, and I ran through a complete power outage with remote restart the other day.

It did feel a bit like Jack Swigert restarting the Odyssey, but it was flawless (if you know, you know lol).

December has very unpredictable weather, so aurora views are pot luck. But the new year usually brings more settled conditions, clearer skies, and lower temperatures.

But this is north Iceland — the weather is always entertaining.