The aurora forecast for last Tuesday was only 3 kp at the best yet by 8.30 pm a number of people had made comments on face book that they were seeing traces of the aurora. I headed down to Leebitton the nearest dark location, the moon was small so only the Cunningsburgh lights to contend with.
I could see a green glow between the clouds, and the light seem to be pulsing and getting stronger, photos confirmed that this was our first Shetland aurora, we did see one in Sheffield in February. Cloud started to thicken to the north which was a pity as we wanted to see more, but this is how auroras are here one minute gone the next.
In this case the aurora continued but we couldn't see it, about an hour later it cleared again but we were back home then and found out that in fact the forecast had been upgraded to a 4.67 kp (Shetland is normally around 4.0 kp),this continued into the early hours. At least we have seen one and are hoping for a better view next time.
I am looking for a dark site within a 15 min drive, so the search continues I have a few sites I want to check out in the next few weeks.
I was surprised how closely the sun then the moon rises in Shetland. recently the sunrise was 7.52 am the moonrise at 12.25 pm,
Typically when a high aurora alert comes through the remnants of the Hurricane started hitting Shetland. Around 10 pm on Monday at least a 5 kp came through, but no chance of seeing it with thick cloud and rain which would only get worse. Again this weekend, with no moonshine, severe gale force winds prevented any photography
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