Aurora showing, then ...

 The night of the 21 February promised a good showing, after all there had been two big spikes of activity during the morning and afternoon (Red Alerts)

As we started the evening things looked promising, clear skies and the wind dropped to around 17mph from the earlier 38 mph.

We waited and waited but there was no growth, in fact little happened until a  very brief spell around 9.15pm when a band of green showed on the webcam and was reported by a couple of people on Facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter but nothing reported on Glendale.

From Mossy Hill

I was out but picked up nothing on camera, it would have been weak as it was an 70% full moon so washing out any colour. I stayed out 1.5 hours and didn't pick up anything

From Bigton

Returning home, nothing had showed on the Slackpot (Graph). But again at 22.43 another small band of green showed for about a minute before disappearing again, again nothing showed on Glendale.

St Ninian's Tombolo

At 23 10pm a large green band with rays appeared but looked washed out on the webcams but we moved onto an Orange alert but that faded quick as well. 

Another spike happened after midnight but the moon washed it out

Double arc Aurora in Shetland

 We have had a good run of Aurora sightings in Shetland and the possibility of more the coming week.

This Double arc aurora on the 3 February was  good to see but having first gone down to Sandsayre in Sandwick i ran into cloud. Tom Jamieson was down at the same time and we both made a comment that we needed to get to a clear spot.

Tom mentioned Tingwall but i wasn't keen as it was very icy and the roads round the loch can be very dangerous in this type of weather

I headed west to Bigton, the road was still icy so i took it very slow. I stayed in the top layby as the tracked was iced up and i didn't want to get stuck

Over the past few days i  have had messages from people who have had broken bones or got their car stuck on ice.

You could easily see the Aurora with the naked eye, seeing the Aurora has been well discussed  on Shetland Aurora Hunter on Facebook.

The cloud was still present but started to clear a bit revealing a double arc of green stretching out into the voe

There was a few rays early on but then a static Aurora for the most part, it was still good to see and i never would take seeing the Aurora for granted. Some Shetlanders have seen so many times it has lost its charm.

Over the last couple of weeks i have been booked to give talks on the Aurora, two in Shetland and a further one in Sheffield when we go south, by then hopefully things will be back to near normal