Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click one of them, I may receive a small commission (for which I am very grateful for) at no extra cost to you.

Seeing the Northern Lights is a major bucket list item for so many and I am no exception. I took my first solo international vacation to visit Sweden at the end December 2019/beginning of January 2020 with the intent of hopefully seeing the Northern Lights for myself. I was super interested in taking pictures of the Northern Lights but I did not own a DSLR camera. This made one of my main questions before planning this trip: can you capture the northern lights on iPhone?

About my trip

A little bit about my trip… I chose Sweden as my aurora viewing destination for a few reasons. The first being I had never visited before and this would be somewhere new. Additionally, when deciding between the Scandinavian countries, I found that Abisko, Sweden had the best microclimate for viewing the northern lights.

I ended up joining a tour group while I was in northern Sweden called Lights over Lapland. Lights over Lapland provides DSLR cameras for you to borrow and a guide to teach you how to use them. Therefore this took the pressure off my need for iPhone photography. Lights over Lapland has single night tour options as well as 4 day all-inclusive tours that cover your food, hotel stay, and some additional daytime excursions. Since I was solo traveling, I opted for the 4 day tour to have some of the extra details taken care of. You can learn more about my trip to Sweden here.

Can you capture the Northern Lights on iPhone?

After going to northern Sweden with both my iPhone and the borrowed camera from Lights over Lapland, I found out a better answer to the question of can you capture the northern lights on iPhone – and its:

It depends.

While I was in Abisko, the Northern lights were classified as calm and there was not a Corona event. A Corona event is where the lights move directly overhead. Therefore all of my pictures were taken with 15-30 seconds of light exposure on my camera settings. With the regular iPhone camera app, I definitely would have been unable to take any pictures. Despite having other camera apps downloaded, I still did not capture any pictures on my phone that I am thrilled with. However, if a Corona event had been experienced, the exposure required would have been around 3-5 seconds. This would change the answer to can you capture the northern lights on iPhone and make it a definite yes (although of course not as good as if you used a DSLR camera).

What you need…

If you are planning to attempt shooting the northern lights with your iPhone, you will need a tripod. This is similar to the tripod that I have as it is small, portable and can be fit in my small crossbody purse. However, for this trip specifically, I would recommend something larger (like this one) so you don’t have to basically get on the ground to shoot or change the settings which is a much bigger hassle when you are wearing a plethora of layers. In addition, you may want a remote in order to keep your phone from moving when you press the shutter button.

Pro tip: You can learn more about how to dress for viewing the northern lights here.

In summary, the answer to can you capture the northern lights on iPhone is a maybe. If you get lucky with an impressive display it will certainly be yes but a tripod with or without a remote would be required.

Are you headed to see the Northern Lights? Let me know how you’re planning to capture your experience in the comments!

To see the settings used for taking pictures of the Northern Lights on a DSLR camera, click here.

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

• Winter Sweden Itinerary
• Abisko Weather in January
• Abisko Weather in December
• Northern Lights Camera Settings
• How to dress for viewing the Northern Lights in January
• Northern Lights in December: How to Pack
• Packing list for viewing the Northern Lights in December

Let’s Stay in Touch…

name:
email:

Sharing is caring!