Rebecca Douglas has been to Iceland 29 times. And he or she’s already booked her thirtieth trip.
The goal of each trip is identical: photographing the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.
Douglas has been photographing this spectacular phenomenon since 2010. It’s colours — which may paint the sky a stunning array of green, purple, yellow and blue — are the results of sun particles that react with gases within the Earth’s upper atmosphere. With the present solar cycle reaching the height of its 11-year period, the lights are expected to be much more distinguished in the course of the next 4 years.
Douglas, a skilled photographer based in Kent in the UK, also travels yearly to Finland, Norway and Iceland to shoot the night sky. But she said she’s also been in a position to photograph Northern Lights from the English countryside up to now yr.
The rise of ‘noctourism’
Douglas has unknowingly been an early adopter of “noctourism” — a trend that focuses on nighttime travel experiences.
Booking.com named it a top travel trend for 2025, describing it as a desire to “ditch the daylight crowds for midnight magic.” A worldwide survey of greater than 27,000 travelers by the corporate showed nearly two in three travelers said they’ve considered “darker sky destinations” for activities comparable to stargazing (72%), once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events (59%) and constellation tracking (57%).
The Northern Lights, as seen over Rebecca Douglas’ holiday accommodation within the Lofoten, an archipelago in Norway.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Most activities involve the night sky, but others occur on the bottom, from city tours and truffle hunting in Italy at night to full moon picnics by the ocean.
Luxury travel company Wayfairer Travel said noctourism experiences rose 25% up to now yr, with requests for Northern Light viewings in Norway and Iceland, but in addition night diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Egypt’s Red Sea. Nocturnal wildlife safaris in Zambia and Kenya and stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert are also popular, in accordance with the corporate.
“Noctotourism is about to remodel travel in 2025 as night owl travelers are increasingly in search of unique after-dark experiences,” said the corporate’s CEO Jay Stevens.
Travelers can enroll to hunt for truffles at night alongside skilled hunters and their dogs.Â
Stefano Guidi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Eclipse chasing could turn out to be a recent “bucket list” experience, in accordance with the posh travel operator Scott Dunn.
“Travelers are venturing to distant corners of the world to witness these celestial spectacles, with Greenland’s High Arctic … set to be the subsequent must-visit destination because of its distant, light-pollution-free shores,” said a Scott Dunn spokesperson.
But journeys needn’t be that far-flung, with hotels from Hawaii to Austria now offering stargazing activities. The following total lunar eclipse will occur on March 14 and might be visible across much of the world, including the Americas, Western Europe and Western Africa, in accordance with NASA.
In quest of darkness
Douglas avoids hotel packages, preferring to plan her own trips, since she plans so many activities at night. She also said she prefers to avoid large groups, which are sometimes made up of individuals recent to noctourism who unwittingly create light pollution with their smartphones and camera flashes.
The Northern Lights, as viewed from Iceland.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Douglas plans most of her trips around one of the best time to see the Northern Lights — often between August and April, she said. She also chooses distant accommodations removed from towns and even neighbors, as only one street or domestic light can compromise photos, she said.
“I spend a variety of time accommodation on Google Maps,” she said. “If there’s any lighting in the photographs, I’ll ask the host if it’s possible to show the surface lighting off … Even a number of the least energetic shows may be really beautiful if you happen to are in a genuinely dark area.”
She also considers the phases of the moon too, she said.
An aurora storm as seen from Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, United Kingdom.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
“In that two weeks around a recent moon, you have the darkest skies possible. After which it isn’t just the Aurora that is at its best, but the celebs are only breathtaking,” she said. “You may see the Milky Way, and it’s just this rainbow of dust and glitter across the sky.”
Douglas created an online course to assist people photograph the aurora borealis.
At night, she also photographs noctilucent clouds — shimmery ice crystal clouds positioned high within the atmosphere — and polar stratospheric rainbow clouds, she said. She sometimes shoots from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m., and has been out in temperatures as little as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They are saying you could have to work hard to your art,” said Douglas.
But to her, spending her travels taking photographs at night is “a privilege,” she said.
