More of Steve

It was superb seeing `Steve' with possibly two ribbons showing, this was confirmed by NASA later. I have submitted my `Steve' photos to Aurorasaurus  who collect information on `Steve'. Check back on the previous blog http://shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/steve-rare-aurora-in-shetland.html for more information

After reviewing many photos posted on Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook i was surprised that more people failed to connect with `Steve'

One person thought it was a odd cloud formation and didn't bother photographing it, another two wanted to get to too many locations and missed Steve when driving. Always try and get to one spot and ideally go to the location in the day and see how many mini spots can be used for different photos

In these two (top and bottom) you can see Steve breaking up, its like an elastic band breaking and causing a vibration in the atmosphere

If i never see it again i will always remember the night.

March will go down as a virtually spotless month and so far this year there has been 58% of it without sunspots. These increase the chance of an Aurora but as can be seen above it doesn't always require sunspots for a fantastic Aurora to occur. The solar minimum will occur 2019/20 then it will start to get better again.