Shetland Aurora Hunter Book Now available

 Great news my book `Shetland Aurora Hunter' is currently in for a reprint and will be available NOW. The first batch was sold out in 12 weeks so if you want a copy pease send me your details and i will add you to those who have pre ordered - contact me at shetlandaurorabook@gmail.com

Find out what Shetlanders have said about the Aurora from1817 to the present day, Shetland own Aurora pioneer, where and when to go out to see the Aurora. Understanding the Aurora and how to preserve memories of a great night watching and photographing this great event. 

In the comprephensive photography section, we shall  look at creating the perfect Aurora photography, settings, focus, equipment, locations.

164 pages

85 photos

16 diagrams

3 graphs

It would make the ideal Christmas present, dont miss out order now

Moon & Venus

Only had a short time to set up before the clouds rolled in again

 The Moon with earth shine and Venus showed really well

 Earth Shine showing well in these last two

The aurora has showed for 10 nights this month but with lock down and that it showed about 1am not been able to get any photos.

You can see some on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter

Venus over St Ninian's

Venus has been very bright in the west over the past few weeks

Here is a few photos from a trip down at St Ninian's Isle

Don't forget to join Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook for all the latest on the Aurora

Full Moon at Bigton

It was just after a full moon at Bigton when we made the short visit over the hill. An Aurora was showing but very faint in the moonlight.

Even though it was supposed to be a clear night cloud built up quickly

Looking south cloud quickly obscured the night sky

Only a short visit but still worth getting out under the Shetland night sky

Facebook - Shetland Aurora Hunter send a request to join

Shetland Aurora Hunter

I have just started a new facebook group page ' Shetland Aurora Hunter' please send me a request to join. The aim is to provide a place to share experiences and photographs on the Aurora, Milky Way, Stars, Meteorites, Comets etc.

The weather has not really provided many opportunities to get out to see the Aurora with cloud, rain and two Hurricanes. Geomagnetic storm conditions for several days produced good Aurora conditions from just before Christmas but as usual the weather didn't clear up

A week or so ago i gave a talk on the Shetland Night Sky which raised a good number of questions and i hope may provide some inspiration to get out on a clear night to see the stars and aurora. The Night Sky Photography course at Islesburgh in April is now full , details are due to be sent out in the next couple of weeks

At last a clear but very cold night on New Years eve and before the Scottish festivities started we headed out.  The wind was quiet strong and coming head on from the North. A KP5 was predicted but as ever the cloud made its presence felt and soon closed in

Despite getting well wrapped up it was still very cold. The Christmas lights on houses in Bigton produced even more light pollution

 Last night the aurora prediction was good and with an increasing  solar wind speed we set off to Bigton with the stars out

 Just as we arrived the clouds came in the wind picked up and it started sleeting

As we headed back we found the roads over to Sandwick covered in snow and the roads began to freeze, so i am glad we came back earlier as it could have been tricky getting over this hill road. One thing you always have to bear in mind when going Aurora hunting. Other people said later it was not as strong as was forecast

Earlier last night, the Moon and Venus looked superb

More photos at http://www.amazingshetland.co.uk

Aurora captured

While people have been watching the aurora for many thousands of years its only recently that we have been able to capture the aurora on camera

Often without the aid of the camera we could miss a weak aurora, the camera sensor is far more sensitive than our eyes. You have to go back to 1892 to when the first aurora photograph was taken which showed some structure, this was taken by  two Germans,  Otto Beschin & Martin Brendel using a highly sensitive plate and a wet process.

Before this Robert Esther tried back in 1885 when he achieved a blurry aurora photograph with an eight and a half min exposure which blurred out the aurora and was never published. Today with advanced digital DSLR cameras we can take exposures of a few seconds which show some great detail.

Long before cameras came along people felt a strong need to capture the aurora in some way to show others, some would turn to art, others tried to describe it in words but now many people try and capture it digitally.

As i have said before its on most people's bucket list and i have spoken to a number of visitors to Shetland who have come up in winter to catch a glimpse or better still a photograph of the Merrie Dancers as it is call here.

Green is the main colour that we see but on some occasions when there is a big storm other colours are evident such as Red and Purple although the latter is less frequently seen. The Red colour is often seen at about 120 miles up with the Green colour lower at 90 miles high and Blue and Magenta at 60 miles high.

I was glad to be out Monday night as this was the only night to have clear skies all this week, the wind was not too strong either but with a major aurora at KP6 on a couple of nights later in the week I was very disappointed to find that it was total cloud cover, heavy rain and up to gale force 8 so no chance of even seeing the aurora.

The milky way was spectacular as well. with no light pollution from the moon many thousands of stars could be seen

see more photos at www.amazingshetland.co.uk