Aurora seconds.

[saturn5]

A few shots from the peak of the display at around 11.30

And one taken earlier at about 9 pm.Its that castle again;)

[Psychobilly]

Been eagerly awaiting the posting of these... great stuff Stewart:)

[russ]

Awesome images Stewart.

That last one with the castle.....superb!!!! So eery. Can you go inside the castle?

[yeti monster]

Wonderful! That Castle shot is haunting...

[MrsR]

Beautiful

[Kp6]

The reflection off the water hints at its brightness, very nice indeed.

[SkyJamie]

Brilliant pictures Stewart

All the best

Jamie

[saturn5]

The reflection off the water hints at its brightness, very nice indeed.

It was a calm night too so i think that made the reflection even brighter.

Thanks for your comments,i'm not realy happy with these shots,I tried something different and it didnt quite come off.

Next time i'll stick with tried and tested methods.

There should be some impressive aurora displays over the next month because i start nightshift on Sunday.:)

[Keiran]

fantastic images as always Stewart. Is that actually waht it looks like?... Oh and love the one with the sea wash and rocks

[saturn5]

fantastic images as always Stewart. Is that actually waht it looks like?... Oh and love the one with the sea wash and rocks

They actually look a more subdued silvery/blue/ green colour if that makes sense so the colours are certainly nowhwere near as intense.

They are bright and do cast reflections across the sea/water.I have never seen the red/purple/pink of aurora's although somepeople have claimed to have seen them during strong storms.

When you start to see the beams of light like the one in the center of the 1st shot,they realy do look like bright searchlights,i watched that beam start at the left of the shot and do its "wavy curtain" dance across the sky,it took about 30seconds to that because when it first appeared on the left i started a 30second exposure,it realy is quite mesmerising,infact during WWII,some of the servicemen stationed in Orkney first thought that the Northern Lights were those bright seearchlights that they used to try and shine on the enemy aircraft.They had never seen aurora before so had no idea what they were looking at.

[Keiran]

I can imagine not knowing what they were, it most have been pretty scary. How long does it normally last?

[saturn5]

On this occassion the green glow was visible from about 8 until about 3 in the morning.

However in the 3 hours i was out the bright searchlight effect only lasted from 11.30 to 11.45 and then the redness faded from the shots as well.They can flare up at anytime but i have noticed over the years that they seem to peak between 11 & midnight more often than not.

The last big storm i saw (KP9)which i believe was in 2001, the aurora was right overhead and lasted all night.It was an amazing sight.Exactly the same as those spectacular shots you see taken from inside the arctic circle.Big sweeping loops of light bending and weaving across the sky.

As we are approaching solar maximum again there is almost guaranteed to be another similar event.

On average there are,i believe 4 KP9 events per 11 year cycle.

100 KP8

200 KP7

&600 KP6 events,so as you can see, the big storms are quite rare but thats what makes them so special.

[Celeste]

Gorgeous images, I wish I could see this