Colourful Aurora

With problems with the computer its been a long time in coming. I never realised that Lightroom 6 was dependant on an internet connection. Lightroom 4 certainly is not so its been a surprise  to find this out. With the Nikon D610 needing to link up with LR6 I have not even been able to download these photos taken on the night of the 12 April 2016

The colours at KP5 turned out to be great, with greens and purples visible to the camera. The lighter areas of green you could see with the naked eye changing and rippling across the sky.

The colours are dependant on which gas is being excited by the electrons and how much energy is being exchanged. Oxygen omits the greenish yellow colour the most familiar colour of the aurora which is about 60 miles above the earth or all red aurora which is oxygen at around 200 miles high. The blues are from nitrogen.

Shetland is the nearest place in the UK to the arctic circle and therefore usually the best place to see the aurora, when its not cloudy. In Shetland the aurora is known as the `Merrie Dancers' , elsewhere the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis and are best seen September/ October then March / April when there is no moon

Now you don't find many people that say they don't want to see an Aurora, it seems to be on everyone's bucket list. We are so lucky in Shetland to be in a place where auroras can be seen, we have been fortunate that we have seen it over two dozen times and never get tired of it.

More to follow soon