Rebecca Douglas has been to Iceland 29 occasions. And she’s already booked her thirtieth journey.
The objective of each journey is similar: 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 inexperienced, purple, yellow and blue — are the results of solar particles that react with gases within the Earth’s higher ambiance. With the present solar cycle reaching the height of its 11-year interval, the lights are anticipated to be much more outstanding throughout the subsequent four years.
Douglas, a professional photographer based mostly in Kent within the United Kingdom, additionally travels yearly to Finland, Norway and Iceland to shoot the night time sky. But she mentioned she’s additionally been in a position to {photograph} Northern Lights from the English countryside previously 12 months.
The rise of ‘noctourism’
Douglas has unknowingly been an early adopter of “noctourism” — a pattern that focuses on nighttime journey experiences.
Booking.com named it a top travel trend for 2025, describing it as a want to “ditch the daylight crowds for midnight magic.” A worldwide survey of greater than 27,000 vacationers by the corporate confirmed practically two in three vacationers mentioned they’ve thought-about “darker sky locations” for actions similar to stargazing (72%), once-in-a-lifetime cosmic occasions (59%) and constellation monitoring (57%).
The Northern Lights, as seen over Rebecca Douglas’ vacation lodging within the Lofoten, an archipelago in Norway.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Most actions contain the night time sky, however others occur on the bottom, from metropolis excursions and truffle searching in Italy at night time to full moon picnics by the ocean.
Luxury journey firm Wayfairer Travel mentioned noctourism experiences rose 25% previously 12 months, with requests for Northern Light viewings in Norway and Iceland, but in addition night time 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 additionally in style, in keeping with the corporate.
“Noctotourism is ready to remodel journey in 2025 as night time owl vacationers are more and more looking for distinctive after-dark experiences,” mentioned the corporate’s CEO Jay Stevens.
Travelers can signal as much as hunt for truffles at night time alongside skilled hunters and their canine.
Stefano Guidi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Eclipse chasing might change into a brand new “bucket record” expertise, in keeping with the luxurious journey 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 following must-visit vacation spot because of its distant, light-pollution-free shores,” mentioned a Scott Dunn spokesperson.
But journeys needn’t be that far-flung, with inns from Hawaii to Austria now providing stargazing actions. The subsequent complete lunar eclipse will happen on March 14 and might be visible across much of the world, together with the Americas, Western Europe and Western Africa, in keeping with NASA.
In search of darkness
Douglas avoids lodge packages, preferring to plan her personal journeys, since she plans so many actions at night time. She additionally mentioned she prefers to steer clear of massive teams, which are sometimes made up of individuals new to noctourism who unwittingly create mild air pollution with their smartphones and digital camera flashes.
The Northern Lights, as seen from Iceland.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Douglas plans most of her journeys round the perfect time to see the Northern Lights — normally between August and April, she mentioned. She additionally chooses distant lodging removed from cities and even neighbors, as only one road or home mild can compromise photographs, she mentioned.
“I spend loads of time taking a look at lodging on Google Maps,” she mentioned. “If there’s any lighting within the photos, I’ll ask the host if it is potential to show the skin lighting off … Even a number of the least energetic reveals will be actually stunning in case you are in a genuinely darkish space.”
She additionally considers the phases of the moon too, she mentioned.
An aurora storm as seen from Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, United Kingdom.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
“In that two weeks round a brand new moon, you have received the darkest skies potential. And then it is not simply the Aurora that is at its finest, however the stars are simply breathtaking,” she mentioned. “You can see the Milky Way, and it is simply this rainbow of mud and glitter throughout the sky.”
Douglas created an online course to assist individuals {photograph} the aurora borealis.
At night time, she additionally pictures noctilucent clouds — shimmery ice crystal clouds situated excessive within the ambiance — and polar stratospheric rainbow clouds, she mentioned. She typically shoots from 8 p.m. till 5 a.m., and has been out in temperatures as little as 5 levels Fahrenheit.
“They say it’s important to work arduous on your artwork,” mentioned Douglas.
But to her, spending her travels taking pictures at night time is “a privilege,” she mentioned.
