Wednesday Aurora in Shetland

Shetland at last had some clear skies and the weather forecast was correct for once with a couple of hours of stars

It was an Orange Alert during the time I was walking St Ninian's isle but no one else came to view.

I don't particularly like totally dark nights as photos tend to look flat, a Moon 25-50% is much better as it lights the landscape

I caught this rare red Aurora on camera and as the Aurora was very active it was showing well over to the west

All the photos were taken with a 24mm Samyang lens and a Sony A7s camera between ISO 6400-8000. The A7s is very good in low light.

                                                                          Bigton Church

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Beach Aurora

Tuesday this week had a reasonable Aurora Forecast, the weather forecast on the other hand was mixed.

I headed down to Bigton where the sky was reasonably free from cloud compared to the east side.

I was looking for a different angle so headed down to the beach. The Moon had just set so it was dark and the milky way showing well.

The Aurora was visible to the naked eye, a wide green band stretching across the sea from Ireland

The other good thing was that it was still which was a pleasant surprise after recent gales. The tide was well up and provided a nice foreground.

The Aurora was only visible for about 1/2 hour before the cloud rushed in from the South west and totally swallowed the green band

I was surprised to find that no one else was about, its usually a popular spot for Aurora's. I am still looking for other sites away from light pollution but looking north. It needs to be fairly close as sometime you get little notice that the Aurora is developing

As it was dark I was using  ISO 6400 at F/2 around 6-8 seconds, its a great setting on the Sony A7s  showing only a little noise. Even Nikon and Canon cameras would show a lot of noise at this ISO

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Bigton Aurora display

Following a disappointing night on Wednesday things finally came good on Friday. Earlier in the day the weather had not looked promising with thick cloud covering Shetland. Then around 7pm it started to clear, well before it would go dark

The Moon would be a problem with at 92% full but cloud came in to help for once

A large CME  sent a fast solar wind which arrived earlier in the afternoon  and would have given a great show had it not been for the daylight.

In Shetland the Aurora is also known as the Mirrie dancers -Northern Lights

At 9 pm we went out as the cloud had cleared  over to the west although everyone else was reporting heavy cloud and drizzle.

At Bigton I could see some Aurora activity on arrival so we soon set up and started photographing. As luck would have it the Moon was covered by cloud and didn't dilute the colours.

About 9.30 the Aurora started to spread and columns of colour could be seen with the naked eye, this lasted about 10 mins before it settled down again. Around 10.15 pm the cloud had come in so we headed back a lot happier.

It appears that most other people in Shetland had not seen the Aurora but further south on the Scottish mainland they also had a good show.

September / October are good months for the Aurora and its not cold either. Once the nights start drawing in it worth heading out if you see any gaps in the sky. All the weather forecasts proved wrong, so never know what to use.- send me your weather forecast please if accurate

Shetland Aurora Hunter members have now passed 1,000, why not join us as the webcams many people watch for signs of the Aurora will be closed down at the end of the month with no company ready to take over from Promote Shetland