Jump to content

NLCbanner2024.jpg.2478be509670e60c2d6efd04834b8b47.jpg

Aurora fills the Sky!

Space Ranger

Recommended Posts

Space Ranger

Space Ranger

Posted
Posted

Great views up here in Caithness tonight - clear skies and aurora dancing everywhere! The sky was full of colour and Eridanus on the southern horizon turned green. I could have done with a fisheye lens - I was finding it difficult to know where to point the camera :-)

I have to say that is one of the best displays I've seen - if it was a glancing blow form a CME it's hard to imaging what a head on collision would have been like.
Here's one photo from the many taken....
post-23986-0-02408700-1393553354_thumb.j
...more to follow once I've had some sleep.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Helite

Helite

Posted
Posted

Cracking picture, I got a great view out in the Moray Firth with no light pollution but devastated I had no camera, not that I could have got decent images standing on a bobbing vessel but it's the strongest I have seen it around here in a long time, quite possible the best display ever. Great capture though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Charic

Charic

Posted
Posted

My Son came down and asked  if we could see the Northern Lights from outside our house. I said yes its possible. He said facebook was full of information saying it was in full swing. We had a look and had some green aurora, but due to the immediate street light pollution, it was difficult to pick out any more colours, but impressive no less. My best visual observation was early 1990' s

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ant F

Ant F

Posted
Posted

i missed it, i did look out last night on the off chance but never got much. as above i was taking photos of orion too. 

is there a website we can go to that tells us if we will get another?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Space Ranger

Space Ranger

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Here's another couple from the night as promised (taken at Dunnet Head, the northern tip of the UK mainland)....

post-23986-0-07860400-1393779228_thumb.j

post-23986-0-17332700-1393779201_thumb.j

I'm still processing images from the night, so there might be one or two to come yet!

My photos hardly do the view of the display justice, but I hope they convey just how spectacular it was. I saw it from ~7pm till midnight, but it kept going strong through to 3am leaving plenty of time for people to get out and enjoy the show. From what I saw many did. The darker spots in the county were busier than I've ever seen them at night - I think half of Caithness ventured outside to look skywards at some point in the evening. Who could blame them.

[it's good to see a lot of the rest of the country got the chance to see the show too.]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Space Ranger

Space Ranger

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Didn't even realise it was going on, I was out with my camera as well, but looking at orion :(

i missed it, i did look out last night on the off chance but never got much. as above i was taking photos of orion too. 

is there a website we can go to that tells us if we will get another?

When I saw the sky was to be clear I was planning getting the scope out to do some deep sky object imaging, but when I spotted the CME had hit and the Bz was significantly to the south I opted for some aurora spotting instead. Just as well I did - there was a bit too much light pollution to contend with :laugh:

Here's an image looking south towards Orion - it wasn't quite during the brightest part of the display...

post-23986-0-80945000-1393783166_thumb.j

Very good, bet the lighthouse was feeling embarrassed.

It did seem like it was being outshone at times :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Space Ranger

Space Ranger

Posted
  • Author
Posted

i missed it, i did look out last night on the off chance but never got much. as above i was taking photos of orion too. 

is there a website we can go to that tells us if we will get another?

Sorry, forgot to add some weblinks to the last post. These are the websites I refer to for news on what the Sun is doing and the chances of seeing aurora...

www.spaceweather.com

www.spaceweatherlive.com/en

www.solarham.com

www.aurora-service.eu

The last one has some nice easy to interpret colour coded dials showing the main parameters that contribute to aurora being visible, so seems to be quite good for beginners to understand.

The bad news is that although from my northerly location I get to see the aurora many times a year during solar maxima (>20), you'll probably do well to see it a couple of times a year from Oxfordshire. Displays like the one this week are unfortunately not a common occurrence - it's the best one I've seen since 2003. I hope we're lucky enough to get another similar to the one on Thursday before the Sun slips into the next period of reduced activity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.