Two nights, two fjords, one degree of latitude apart. Lyngenfjord on the Tromsø–Alta E6 in March 2015; Russeluft, across the water from Alta, in March 2016. Both frames were made under a quiet sky — Kp 2.67 and Kp 1.33 in the archive for those exact hours — and both show the curtain overhead. That is the whole point of going this far north.
Kp is a global index — the same number for the whole planet on a given night. What changes with latitude is where the auroral oval sits over your head. At 65° geomagnetic the horizon glows at Kp 1; here, a degree or two further north, a quiet night is still a night. What follows is the book’s own note on each place, and the archive’s reading of the hour each frame was made.
On the Tromsø–Alta E6, just past Skibotn — a panoramic view of the Lyngen Alps across the fjord.
From the lay-bys on the E6, face north to north-west; the curtain drifts west to east over the peaks. Low traffic, very dark. Foreground: the fjord and the mountain silhouette.
The shore opposite Alta, one of the book's northernmost spots (70°N) — the oval sits nearly overhead, so even a low Kp works.
Face north to north-east across the Altafjord; town lights reflect on the water. Foreground: the fjord. This far north the curtain is often already overhead.
A quiet Kp, a far-north latitude,
and the curtain overhead all the same.
The book keeps its northernmost ground for a reason. Down south you wait for the oval to reach you; up here it is already overhead, and a night the archive files as quiet — Kp 1, Kp 2 — still hands you a curtain. Everything else is the sky, the cold, and which way you face; the book’s notes say which way that was.