Sunspot at last

Both NASA and NOAA have predicated that we are heading even further into the Solar minimum, Is this bad news for Aurora watchers. This low is expected to last until Autumn 2020 followed by a slow recovery

The new Solar Cycle 25 won't commence until 2023 - 2026



Graph: Space Weather

Solar Cycle 24 was a weak affair and produced little action. Sunspots usually produce a flares and Aurora activity. Some think that in an Aurora Minimum, the Aurora take on a more pink colour, which has been the case recently.

Solar wind comes from holes in the Sun, rather than Sunspot Flares at this time in the Solar Cycle, which still produces some impressive Aurora

This sunspot which appeared a few days ago, AR2738, is impressive, its has a core 3 times that of Earth but has not produced any flares. Something may happen soon as it seems to be breaking up.

The Sunspot has a trail which is 200,000km long, also know as a Light Bridge.

In 2018 we had 221 days where no sunspot were seen (61%)
so far in 2019 we have had 62  days (60%) where no sunspots have been visible

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St Ninian's isle, Shetland at night

No Aurora activity for a few days now and a series of spotless days on the sun. We did however have a couple of sunspots which shed a bit of light on the fact that we might becoming out of the Solar minimum

Stars above Bigton Kirk

Looking south with Mars in view

St Ninian's Tombolo

Looking south from Ireland towards St Ninian's

Boats on the horizon

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.

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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

More of Steve

It was superb seeing `Steve' with possibly two ribbons showing, this was confirmed by NASA later. I have submitted my `Steve' photos to Aurorasaurus  who collect information on `Steve'. Check back on the previous blog http://shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/steve-rare-aurora-in-shetland.html for more information

After reviewing many photos posted on Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook i was surprised that more people failed to connect with `Steve'

One person thought it was a odd cloud formation and didn't bother photographing it, another two wanted to get to too many locations and missed Steve when driving. Always try and get to one spot and ideally go to the location in the day and see how many mini spots can be used for different photos

In these two (top and bottom) you can see Steve breaking up, its like an elastic band breaking and causing a vibration in the atmosphere

If i never see it again i will always remember the night.

March will go down as a virtually spotless month and so far this year there has been 58% of it without sunspots. These increase the chance of an Aurora but as can be seen above it doesn't always require sunspots for a fantastic Aurora to occur. The solar minimum will occur 2019/20 then it will start to get better again.

Red Sun Blue Moon

If you look back in the recent blogs I am sure you will find me mentioning that we are heading into a solar minimum. When this occurs we have less opportunity to see the Aurora. The first photo was taken at the beginning of February, the second last year. In January 2018 we had 17 days when no sunspots were visible(50%), last year there was 104 spotless days (28%)

If you look at certain newspapers some suggest that we are entering a mini ice age and back in the 1600/1700's there was a period of 70 years without sunspots and this resulted in the River Thames freezing with mini icebergs  seen.

While we will see less Coronal Mass ejections as a result of less sunspots exploding, but there will still be splits in the sun core so the Solar wind which sparks off the Aurora will still occur. This cycle is over an 11 year period

The other notable even of January 2018 was the second Super moon in the month and this is called a Blue Moon. The last time that happened was 150 years ago on the 31 March 1866. A Super moon is 14% bigger and 30% brighter and this certainly was the case but only showed for about 5 mins before the cloud came in

In some parts of the world but not in the UK there was also a Lunar Eclipse or a Blood Moon as the moon turns Red

So if you are around in 2034 the moon will be even closer to earth when it can be seen at 221, 485 miles away.

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