Comet 46/P Wirtanen from Shetland

If I had accepted the numerous weather forecasts on Monday I wouldn't have gone out as most said a min of 98% cloud.

There was no hint of the Aurora when we ventured out at 6.15 pm (it did show briefly at 10.30 pm) but the sky was stunning and only 5% cloud , so why on earth did the forecasts say otherwise (well it is only a forecast). They did get the wind and temperature correct with only a force 2-3 and 1 degree.

I headed to a local dark site and it could have been anywhere in Shetland but this was over at Bigton to the west and only 10 mins away.

Quickly setting up I wanted to find the Comet 46/P Wirtanen which is the brightest today (12 12 18)at magnitude 3 . It actually is closer to earth on the 16 December when it is only 11.6 M Km away and it should look bigger then. 

The problem will be the wind in Shetland with force 7 winds expecting so photography will be very difficult.

Anyway the green comet did show up in the photos, despite a fuzz appearance.

Another target was the Plough, again easily picked up to the north while Mars was showing well to the south

Plough

The milky way was spectacular to the west and with no moon to provide any light pollution many stars became visible.

It makes you wonder just how many satellites are orbiting the earth when you can capture 3 or 4 in one 15 second frame. One however the Iridium satellites which produce  a nice flare will no longer be flashing in the sky after this month, with new ones being launched which don't show the middle bulge.

Besides all the targets I went to photograph, it's an excellent period for  Geminid meteors 14- 18 December which are usually very bright and around 120 per hour. Had it not been for Force 6-7 winds for the rest of this week, they would have been a great target with the Comet.

                   Coastguard helicopter and the Plough

All the photos on this page were taken with a Sony A7s and a 24mm Samyang lens, ISO6400 F2 between 10-15 seconds depending on direction

I have just finished delivering the Night Sky Photography Course in Lerwick and the revised course has gone down very well. I will be running this again next November so keep an eye out for details, places go quick.

 Milky  Way over St Ninian's Tombolo

Aurora Reminders

We are now getting closer to the solar minimum and as a result we should get less aurora activity. The sun is again spotless making this the 133rd day so far this year, you have to go back to 2009 to find a period like this and this was the deepest solar minimum this century.

Already this period we have had a couple of nights when the Aurora  has shown but this was around 2.00am , too late for me. I always think of September as the start of the season with the nights drawing in so any observations can be at a reasonable time.

The photos shown here are from last season and we had some crackers including these taken at Bigton

`Steve' also made an appearance and was totally unexpected and it still sparks of conversations among the hunters. Too many people made the mistake of trying to get round a lot of locations and spent too much time in the car rather than photographing.

The appearance of `Steve' is usually one arc but two could be seen, a rare sight indeed. The green usually associated with the arc can be seen in the lower on in the above photo.

To keep up to-date join us at Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook just send me a request to join.

High energy can be seen in these photos and was easily visibleto the naked eye, it certainly was fast moving and for me was one of the best Aurora nights I have experienced

If you want to join me on a course to photograph the night sky, then book the one below which will be held in Lerwick, Shetland in November/ December. Only a few places available so book soon

Waiting and watching

It is not long now , we should be able to see the Aurora in just a few weeks as the nights start to draw in and i cannot wait.

To keep us going through the long daylight hours we have had a Talk by the British Geological survey dept at the museum the other Friday night. It started with a superb video of the Aurora in Iceland followed by a very informative talk lasting an hour.

They talked about the Geomagnetic data from the UK used in predicting the Aurora with Lerwick observatory being a vital part of collecting the information. It may look like a collection of garden huts but each one collects some vital information which is used to determine the Aurora KP level.

check out http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk

Another magnetometer has been installed in Mossbank in the north mainland and should go live in the next few month

It was also interesting to see how much the magnetic pole has move since 1900, one thing that we have to think about when doing astrophotography.

http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/viewing_aurora.html

For many years those in & outside Shetland have no doubt been watching cliff cam 3 to see the aurora, you may not be aware but this has been under threat. The Shetland Island council has withdrawn funding from Shetland Amenity Trust which runs the webcams around Shetland.

The webcams would have gone off line on the 30 June but the SIC have said they will allow funding for another 3 months which will allow other tenders to be submitted for the work to carry on, that's if they get an acceptable bid which hasn't happened yet.

So when the aurora season arrives make full use of the webcam service, it might not be here for much longer. A petition has been launched to save this service, please sign it whether you live in Shetland or not

Copy this into your toolbar.

https://www.change.org/p/shetland-islands-council-change-shetland-councils-decsission-not-to-renew-shetland-amenity-trusts-contract/w?source_location=petition_nav

it important that 5000 signatures are submitted, over 3000 at present.

don't forget to join us on Facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter - just send me a request to join

Tingwall Light Pollution

Tingwall can be very good for seeing the Aurora but it also suffers from light pollution, which is especially evident when cloud forms

The first two are looking north and east showing light pollution from Lerwick

The 4 photos below are looking south picking up light pollution from Scalloway

You can still see Orion from half way up Tingwall valley

Further north at Brae and Sullom the light pollution is very bad.

Join us on Shetland Aurora Hunter - send me a request, here you can see many more photos of the Shetland night sky from a number of people