Unexpected Aurora

Well just goes to show that even though the Aurora Forecast was for a KP2 it turned out to be a great night.

I had planned to go out anyway down to Scatness and arrived just before dark. The stars just appeared  as i started to get set up. I would have preferred some moonlight to light up some rocks but it was totally dark as the cloud started to disappear, just as forecast for once. The Moon set just before dark but would have only been at 6%

I wanted to photograph a couple of stone circle type constructions, although not true stone circles as they appear to lack height. It was more difficult than expected finding these in the dark but I eventually managed it.

I had been facing south up to that point but turned to photograph the circles and I could see the glow of the Aurora expanding, even visible to the naked eye over the light pollution of Sumburgh airport.

I incorporated the aurora in the photos although the glow from the airport was very bright.

Moving back down the hill towards the loch I stopped at the edge to get a few photos as the reflections looked good with the aircraft warning light glowing red on Fitful head.

I stopped at Old Scatness where a wooden visitor centre blocked out some light pollution from Sumburgh Airport. By this time the aurora had grown in brightness and was in full flow with lots of colour visible to the naked eye, lots of pillars reaching high.

Returning home it became clear that it was still active at 10.30 and with clear skies someone might have a good photo opportunity. Check Shetland Aurora Hunter several people had already displayed photos.

Looking at the stats especially the slackpot it looks like I caught the best of the display between 9- 10.30 pm

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Aurora not cloud

How wrong can you be, the weather forecasts all indicated a cloudy night, yet in reality it turned out to be a virtually a clear night. This was in the south mainland while the north mainland, Yell and Unst suffered with thick cloud and drizzle.

We headed over to the west side as it became dark just as the Aurora stats started to become better, rising wind speeds and density with the BZ on the down.

The moon had also set earlier in the night so it was very dark just the right condition to see the many millions of stars.

As well as the Milky way green airglow could be seen , something that confuses people as sometimes they think it could be the Aurora, but this was facing south not north.

However looking north the Aurora was bright and around 10.15 it became slightly more active with green pillars moving across the green band. This was only a  KP3 but being so far north it was a good show.

Around 10.45 the cloud started to arrive so we headed home well pleased.

With now well over 1,000 members Shetland Aurora Hunter has grown well since I started the group back in December 2016, just send me a request to join.

I had one of my Aurora photos from the 8 September published in the Shetland Times last week. It was rather a disappointing quality, but this wasn't unexpected as it is always a difficult subject to reproduce.

Recently I have had a couple of Canvas prints done and they have come out well. The Sony A7s only has 12 mp but they managed to produce good prints at 30x20 inches. Metallic paper and Acrylic are other  good options.

I have had numerous questions about processing, some don't like any type of enhancement except sharpening. A lot of Aurora photos for me are too dark so it is important to make sure that the histogram is about 1/4 way from the left, it is worth putting the ISO up to gain a lighter photo which usually shows less noise- noise lives in dark places.

Bigton Aurora display

Following a disappointing night on Wednesday things finally came good on Friday. Earlier in the day the weather had not looked promising with thick cloud covering Shetland. Then around 7pm it started to clear, well before it would go dark

The Moon would be a problem with at 92% full but cloud came in to help for once

A large CME  sent a fast solar wind which arrived earlier in the afternoon  and would have given a great show had it not been for the daylight.

In Shetland the Aurora is also known as the Mirrie dancers -Northern Lights

At 9 pm we went out as the cloud had cleared  over to the west although everyone else was reporting heavy cloud and drizzle.

At Bigton I could see some Aurora activity on arrival so we soon set up and started photographing. As luck would have it the Moon was covered by cloud and didn't dilute the colours.

About 9.30 the Aurora started to spread and columns of colour could be seen with the naked eye, this lasted about 10 mins before it settled down again. Around 10.15 pm the cloud had come in so we headed back a lot happier.

It appears that most other people in Shetland had not seen the Aurora but further south on the Scottish mainland they also had a good show.

September / October are good months for the Aurora and its not cold either. Once the nights start drawing in it worth heading out if you see any gaps in the sky. All the weather forecasts proved wrong, so never know what to use.- send me your weather forecast please if accurate

Shetland Aurora Hunter members have now passed 1,000, why not join us as the webcams many people watch for signs of the Aurora will be closed down at the end of the month with no company ready to take over from Promote Shetland