Shetland Meteor

 At 8.25am this morning many Shetlander were awoken by a large explosion which turned out to be a very bright meteor which was only seen by a few people. Some thought it was a bomb going off or an earthquake.

The above fireball was not from today but back in 2016 when i was just setting up to photograph the aurora down at St Ninian's. Today's was only caught on Shetland webcam, cliffcam 3.

see more on Shetland Aurora Hunter on Facebook.

Also many thanks to everyone who has viewed my blog, now over 100,000 views which only goes to show the power of the Shetland night sky

Shetland on Red Alert

 

Last night the alerts started coming in around 9.30 and quickly moved up to Red Alert

I headed down to Sandsayre and found no one else about

It was great to have a clear sky for once but it was very cold -3 at least with the wind chill, good job i got wrapped up

Although it was on Red Alert i found this to be weak and really on equivalent to a Yellow Alert

There was a shimmer and a bit of purple but i was expecting a bit more, may be its down to having very little activity over the past few days

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Aurora and full moon

The Moon has been nearly at full making aurora photography more challenging. I manage to get down when a weak aurora arrived just as the moon was hidden behind the cloud

The moon rising behind Sandlodge in Sandwick

The sun has become more active this last two weeks with 3 X-Class flares and many M- Class Flares but few CME's which bring the auroras

 A weak Aurora down at Leebitton under a full moon.

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Shetland Aurora- at last

Good to final photograph the aurora, it has been a long time

March is always a good month to see the aurora so i hope we will get more nights under the lights

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Some Aurora activity

 It seems a long time since we have had some good aurora action. We have had a few weak aurora since mid December last year.

Even the weather has been poor but the lack of CME's have been the main problem. There has been plenty of flares, including 3 X-Flares a few days ago and plenty of Sunspots but none sending out solar winds which sparks aurora

It was good to give RSPB Shetland a talk on the aurora and now i have started writing a column on the Night Sky for the Shetland Times. The one yesterday was on the Aurora. I am also delivering photography courses on the Night Sky and we are half way through the 6 week course.

There is a big interest in the aurora and Night sky but AI is starting to ruin the experience and fooling people. I saw one AI aurora post that had 5.5k likes with people saying it was amazing and they cannot wait to see it in person. AI posts have been banned from Shetland Aurora Hunter facebook group, hope more do it.

Starry night at the old Croft House

It seems to be weeks since the last clear/ part clear night in Shetland after many cloudy rainy windy nights

The weather seems to be changing and we are heading for  a high pressure which means clear skies but very cold and snow expected tonight

The croft house at Boddam always makes a nice foreground and i hope to return soon to photograph it with an aurora.

 

Shetland Stars and Aurora

Nigfht's in Shetland are always special, having so many dark sites we are able to see many 1,000's of stars and of course the aurora

Stars, so good to see so many in Shetland dark skies

St

This was down at st Ninian's 

                                            A couple of Aurora photos from Sandsayre in Sandwick

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I have also been asked to write articles for the Shetland Times on the night sky, these will appear on the last Friday of the month starting in January 2024