The moon works for and against Iceland photography, depending on what you’re shooting. A bright moon washes out fainter aurora displays and flattens the contrast a dark sky gives the Northern Lights — new moon nights are when aurora photographers get the deepest, most saturated skies. The same bright moon, on a clear night with snow on the ground, can illuminate an entire landscape well enough to shoot a long exposure without a single artificial light.
This calculator gives you moon phase, illumination percentage, moonrise and moonset for any date in Iceland — so you can plan an aurora session around genuine darkness, or a moonlit landscape shot around exactly the opposite.
All times are in Iceland Time (UTC, year-round — Iceland does not observe daylight saving time).