Aurora and the Moon

 Last night the Aurora appeared yet again but it coincided with a 90% Moon. Not the best for photographing as it washes out the green.

It was still very worth while getting out in the cold, for once the weather forecast was correct and it was 95% clear.

Not a lot of ice about which was good.

I went down to Sandsayre not chancing a trip over to the west side just in case of icy roads. As soon as i stepped out of the car i found out there was no wind, another bonus

Starting at the boats the green arch of the Aurora was just about visible to the eye as it moved to Red Alert.

Now clearly visible to the naked eye

I moved down to the jetty and beyond and it was nice to have some waves crashing on the rocks

The stats stayed strong until about 11pm then faded but by midnight it came strong again, this time catching out Glendale who didn't predict this surge

I was long in bed by then 

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Weak Shetland Aurora

Yesterday there was an inter planetary shock around 3.30pm which sparked off a weak Aurora initially

The Aurora started early around 18hrs but as usual there was plenty of cloud around

I headed down to Leebitton and Sandsayre in Sandwick

Just small patches of green showing

Lots of people now having outside lights on throughout the night, no reason for it really.

More light pollution this time at Sandlodge, always difficult to get a photo

At least it was good to see Orion

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Shetland nights

Shetland offers many photo opportunities not just during the day

Just recently, the Aurora has been showing for several nights hopefully more to come before the year end

These red lights on top of wind turbines will be more problematic when the Viking Wind Farm is constructed destroying our night sky in the central mainland

The lights will be seen 25 miles away so might be more difficult for Aurora photography from this location at Tingwall loch

Cloud and light pollution, together with Christmas lights always causes problems. This looking towards Ireland near Bigton

Up to the great event, we were able to see Jupiter and Saturn getting closer. The problem on the night was cloud but very strong winds before caused a lot of issues trying to photograph it

 

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