Underwear: I ALWAYS use wool underwear. NOT COTTON. Cotton stores the moisture from your body. Even if its -15′C, your body produce a lot of moisture.

Middle layer: I use wool or wool/fleece as a middle layer for the heat. I can also have more than one under/ middle layer.

Top layer: The outer layer must be a wind-stopper with or without thermal function. I prefer Gore-Tex in descent quality. But the wind-stopper function is the most important for this layer because the wind remove the temperature from you body. You must also have the possibility to stop the heat escape from your body. A lot of heat may escape around your neck,etc. If you really want to suffer and be cold, use tight jeans! If you use a tight outer-layer, you compress and remove the insulating layers of air between you inner layer.

Head: Cover your head with a product that stop the wind and preventing heat escaping. A lot of heat from your body escape this way. And also a “head-over” is a good choice to cover your face if its very cold.

Hands: A pair of good and warm gloves or mitten. Also with wind-stopper function. You get good gloves/mittens with extra “inner” gloves for a descent price, to easily operate your camera. Personal I prefer mittens, perhaps combined with a pair of thin gloves.

Shoes: Non slippery thermal shoes. Remember that you not gone move so much and may stand or sit still for hours. Its more important to wear a pair of really good wool socks instead of many “bad” ones. I tip is a pair of thin woolsocks and a pair of a thick woolsocks on top of them. And you’ll find wool-sole in the shoe-shops in the city.

Other: One the most important thing is to be aware of that it probably gone be a cold experience out there!! By moving your toes, fingers and body often, you keep your selves warmer. To play in the snow, if some, is also a good idea. Remember to remove the snow from you clothes after the play or before you enter the car again. Otherwise the snow will melt and your clothes get wet. Its also important to drink water,etc because you actual dehydrate a lot in the cold.

Thermal suits: Most of you will feel warm max. the first 30 min. after we stop and leave the warm car, so many of you don’t think you need the thermal suits. For your own comfort, please put on the thermal suits when I advise you to or ask for them if I don’t!! Its just a matter of time before you get cold. Yes, other people have used the thermal suits before you, but they also had several layers of clothes on and was not naked in there and the suits are cleaned regularly.

A camera with possibility for manual adjustments of shutter-speed, aperture, ISO and manual focus. A good and modern compact camera or an SLR is preferred. To shoot in RAW is a good idea, but not a must. High quality jpegs works ok.
Your camera need a descent fast lens with an aperture at min. f4.0. But your on the limit with this values and f4.0 means very long shutter-speed and use of high ISO. High ISO also produce more noise in your photos.  

A good and stable tripod to stabilize the camera and to prevent shaking. You easily get track from the stars if your camera move. Because of the long shutter-speed the camera must be mounted on a tripod. Try not to leave your camera alone if you don’t trust the steadiness of the tripod. A wind-cast or other unpredicted movement (i.e by people), can easily destroy your camera equipment. Also other equipment can blow away in seconds, so take good care of your equipment.

Good batteries! You should bring at least two fully charged batteries or if you use non chargeable batteries, bring plenty of it. It’s a good idea to put a battery (or several) in your pocket to keep it warm. You don’t want to loose the power when the Aurora dances in the sky.

A cable releaser or you might use the delay function. Using the shutter directly with your finger may causes distortion and movement. But if you’re careful you may use this solution. I prefer a cable releaser because the northern light change so quickly and you might loose the shot of the year while waiting for the delay function.

A lot of memory! Starting to delete pictures by watching the LCD screen is not a good option at all. Specially if Aurora perform one of her celestial dance above your head. Believe me, it can be stressful. And you also got to remember Murphy’s law who also tries to give you a hard time.

If you’re afraid of running out of battery power, or you only have room for a few more photos on your card, replace battery and card while there is a silent period.

Torch/head-torch. Its an important detail who will make the photographing easier for you. And the best of all, you get a torch with red light. The red light will not destroy your night vision or the rest of the groups night vision! Be careful with the use of torch . Practice in the darkness at home before so you’re familiar with the buttons, etc on your camera.

If you feel exited (which you probably do), DON'T jump up and down. Why? Movement again and the stars gone look like W’s.