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.
