Moon

The moon is always a good target for astrophotographers

When the atmosphere is clear the light is superb and with an 800mm lens you can get some good close ups

ThesThse

These are still cropped but are sharp. Good to photograph the moon at any phase but full and new are the most challenging

 Check out Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook

Rare Red Aurora- Shetland

The aurora talk for Shetland Community Wildlife group went down well despite the gales and rain with 27 people turning up

Good to see one of my aurora photos being used as a front cover of the 2023 Shetland Times calendar 

Aurora activity has remained high for over a couple of weeks but for us cloud has blocked many a good aurora with only glimpses through the cloud

This night (photos) started early and quickly moved to orange alert so i chanced the east side of Shetland down at Sandsayre, the west looking cloudier.

It was evident that this was a powerful aurora with rays reaching high in the sky and then red starting to show above the green. Red is a rare aurora colour and although i could just about see the green i could not see red to the eye.

Good job the camera can pick it up. Red auroras happen when highly charged particles from the sun collide with high altitude oxygen atoms, if the atom collides with another atom no energy (light) is released but at high altitude there are less atoms so less chance of them colliding and therefore able to release the red light.

It's a shame there was so much cloud around, hiding the red aurora but nevertheless you can see the extend of the rays.

 

Aurora Talk in Shetland

 If you are in Shetland ,you might be interested in the above talk, tickets are FREE just scan the code to reserve one

Maywick Aurora

 A lot of things need to come together to get a good aurora. First a clear sky, an aurora, small moon, no wind

Well more or less, this is how it was as i travelled over to Maywick on the west side.

I had set off when i saw the stats altering and arrived just in time as a Yellow alert came out as i arrived in the small village

No time to hand about so i set the camera up on the tripod and headed for the beach down a narrow path and a steep drop 

I could see the aurora developing with my eyes and could see a faint green band which started to ripple

Not long after i could see rays and this coincided with an Orange alert

The sea was coming in fast and i couldn't get to the part of the beach i would have liked to get to.

Lots of rays started to show and i had a peice of good luck that the cloud started to block out the near full moon

The whole display only lasted 10 mins before fading 

After an hour i returned to the car just in time for another aurora to ask me if it was still visible

The sun is getting more and more active as we move to Solar max so i can expect more or better nights than this one

I have a few Shetland Aurora Hunter books, this is A4 size, 164 pages with 85 photos and its packed with information. Message me if you would like a copy £20, i can post anywhere in the world (extra cost) or if you are in Shetland you can collect

Shetland milky way and airglow

 A good clear night, the first for  along time, the aurora showed as a weak glow the stars, especially the milky way and green airglow was superb

Loo

Looking east with Sandlodge in the distance

The boats at sandsayre

Sanick, Sandwick looking south to Sumburgh Head

Sandsayre, Sandwick

Sandlodge

Milky Way

 

Seeing the Milky way is always a special even and on this night, it was clear and moon free

The ideal conditions to see and photograph the Milky Way down at St Ninian's

All photos taken at ISO3200 13 seconds at F1.8

For anyone who is interested, i am just re printing my book ` Shetland Aurora Hunter' , this is 164 pages with 85 photos, lots of info on how to photograph the aurora, history of the aurora in Shetland, what the terms mean and much more - £20+postage and packing. message me if interested.