Mid August is the start of our Milkyway season here in the North. We have up until end of Oct to catch great views of the spectacle before winter rains and year end freeze start piling in on us.
August to me is the most aniticipated month of the year. Having witness MW from a darksite north of India back in 2018, I doubt that I'll be able to repeat the same in Norway. Main obstacles here are getting enough clear sky nights ... they are most rare this far up north on the west coast. But we try nevertheless ...
I will try these site this year, both are viewing North East in the picture. The MW is mostly rising South West in August and shifts South as the season progresses.
I'm hoping to be lucky enough this year to be able to get a couple of nights out. Last year I managed to image with 3xcameras (one on Star Adventurer) at the same site by on the side of the road. This year I might be able to image with 2xStar Adventurers if I managed to lug all the gear up this knoll.
Another great site is further south which is also a distinct possibility. Fosseknuten might be too far out to attempt unless it's over multiple day camping trip.
The temperatute hits 23 deg C and the conditions in the house becomes rather warm, oppressive and not comfortable. Houses here are not built for comfort in these "hot" climes ... we have lots of glass, lots of windows, they are mostly constructed to keep the heat in.
You can of course open up all the double glazed windows and with it will flow in the summer insects, summer noises and also the heat. So the only solution seems to either soak in a bathtub (swimming pools are not very common unless it's covered and heated and are very rare).
Let's head for the outdoors ... together with the rest of the country so it seems ...
This place is Johrenholmen a walking distance away from Rema 1000 in Jorpeland, that used to be distant township across the fjord which is now only 340mins by car using the newly built Ryfylke tunnel system. And it costs only NOK140 each way. Cheap considering the access to an entire landmass across the waters. Before this it was such a nuisance having to queue for a ferry and all that.
Of course everybody seems to be having the same idea to escape the heat! Johrenholmen is indeed a very nice spot ... I wonder how dark this place is at night, probably not too dark since it's so close to the township.
I have been checking some tents for use on a night out camping chasing Milkyway, Aurora or whatever else that moves in the clear nightsky.
That came to 3 final contenders : NatureHike's Cloudup 2p, MSR Hubba NX 1p, Exped Lyra II 2p
I guess on some outing just being able to sleep out is already a bonus - spring nights for April Milkyway, summer nights for NoctiLucent Clouds and autumn nights for both Milkyway, aurora or Andromeda. But then why would you go out to the mountains at night to sleep anyways?
On some outings I've literally not slept and only caught some quick ZZZs in the car before driving home. Some nights I unintentially slept in the car while on the road, on many occasions almost landed in some ditch. Other nights I've slept on a rock, on the ground with sheep or on a folding chair. Hopefully with one of these tents I can venture out further from the side of the road, stay out longer and sleep better when I needed to and come home in one piece without (God forbid) having to crawl out of a wreckage in some ditch somewhere or frozen to a rock in the middle of nowhere or assaulted by sheep.
Key criterias are weight for lugging it around in the mountains, and space of course for camera gear and my claustrophia. Weight will determine how far I can move away from the car. Obviously the 1p vs 2p is very different real estate wise. Ruggedness counts too but not so much here in Norway since I won't be going out in a downpour to catch those things that move in the night anyways; slight cloud cover and fullmoon kills the outing very quickly usually on most nights.I won't be camping winter nights out in the mountains that's for sure.
From left : Lyra 2p, Hubba NX 1p, Cloudup 2p
Cloudup 2p : 1.8kg
Hubba NX : 1.2 kg
Lyra : 2.1kg
Massive space in Lyra II 2p tent but 2.1kg hauling weight.
Tight space in this Hubba NX 1p tent but only 1.2kg to haul.
Cloudup 2p tent has ample space and relatively light at 1.8kg. It does not look as robust as the Lyra though, should be great for nice balmy summer nights outside.
Robustness undoubtedly comes with extra weight, I guess you can't have everything in one package without paying top dollar for it. Lyra seems to win in this category. Of course you probably can find something that fits the bill : weight, space and robustness but then it goes without saying the pricewill be high. Current Cloudup is @NOK1600, Hubba NX is @NOK5400 and Lyra is @NOK3600. I also have a Nemo Hornet 1p @NOK2500.Expedition tents can up upwards of NOK12,000. I'm not spending that amount of money just on the off chance we get 1-2 clearnights on the Westcoast ... cheaper to just move to Oslo for a long weekend!
Setup are as easy as 1-2-3 for all three tents, they seemed to have the latest light aluminium frames which is almost automatic to set. The general skeleton is the same for all three tents. Hubba NX and Lyra have two zippered openings; Cloudup only one. All three has reenforced flap rain protection zippers.
Cloudup came with additional floor mat, the rest didn't, but all have waterproofed bottoms.
The gathering of gear for this sole purpose of night watching has been long and steady; and has cost a pretty penny since. I have yet to make use of them in the field unfortunately. It's been either cloudy nights, foggy nights, rainy nights or bug all happening nights since the last time I slept on that cold bare rock under the full moon.
So all in all, hopefully with essential gear now all gathered, there will be that 1-2 clearsky nights coming up in the next couple of months. Fingers crossed, toes crossed!
This is the old heavy 3p tent I had, suitable for near the car camping or if you have someone else lugging it.
Full moon night many moons ago, sleeping on a rock while timelapsing the clouds. It was the only clear night in September.
