Massive aurora alert for tonight!

Last night was absolutely amazing. Glad I didn't give up on it despite initial nast cloud cover. Clearly visible with naked eyes all over the sky. Insane really.

I'm debating a drive down to Bristol for tonight, going all in for the kill shot but not encouraged with activity currently at the rock bottom
 
Prediction says it'll go back up.
But predictions aren't great on a hour by hour resolution IME
Not that they good in the first place at any resolution for that matter. But sometimes aurora app gets it right within a few days of major activities
 
Let's begin with the big picture, about 11PM last night. 16mm wasn't quite wide for these. Some were actually the wrong way! Colour was slightly less intense than pictured but clearly distinguishable.

20240510-_Y0A8869-Enhanced-NR.jpg20240510-_Y0A8887-Enhanced-NR.jpg20240510-_Y0A8888-Enhanced-NR.jpg
 
And now the more artistic takes once I got enough of the above.
The low level cloud kept me from getting the isolated shots of the hills, which is really what I expected to do; you just don't plan for 180 degree views of the lights in the UK instead.
First two actually sidelit with my phone. Third one is predawn so good by itself. It was still strong as ever if more isolated at 4AM!

20240511-_Y0A8975-Enhanced-NR-Edit.jpg20240511-_Y0A9032-Enhanced-NR-Edit.jpg20240511-_Y0A9074-Enhanced-NR-Edit.jpg
 
andrewc said:
Was surprised how well iphone worked at home last night, despite street lights, neighbours houses and general light pollution.
Click to expand...

I think there will be a large number of people who previously derided phone camera,as not that good for real photography being pretty quite over the few days as people post the Aurora phone shots.
 
Delphin said:
I think there will be a large number of people who previously derided phone camera,as not that good for real photography being pretty quite over the few days as people post the Aurora phone shots.
Click to expand...
They are quite capable filling the screen space, just not a millimetre beyond that! Horrible things....
 
Once in a lifetime photo.....

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Challenge - DPOTY24 - May Entries thread: "Nature"

Entry is open for May, on the theme of "Nature"; shoehorns and crowbars permitted of course Remember, in case any of the recent new participants haven't studied the rules: entries must have been taken since the 1st December last year (2023), anything shot before that is not valid. Entries can be...
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
Probably my favourite shot from last night. 11 shot panorama at Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk.
Canon RP, RF35 f1.8 @f2.2, 2sec.

IMG_5348-Enhanced-NR-Panoa-5.jpg

No real sign of anything here tonight, only a faint bit of green, but just cloud.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps there could be more opportunities this year as the cycle of peak solar activity over the 11 year cycle is set to peak later in the year, if I understand correctly?
 
TimHughes said:
Perhaps there could be more opportunities this year as the cycle of peak solar activity over the 11 year cycle is set to peak later in the year, if I understand correctly?
Click to expand...
I think Jan - Oct is the peak. So we are in the peak but a fair amount of activity is expect in 2025 also.
So hopefully we'll have a few more chances like last night!
 
I missed Friday nights, stayed up last night to see the dark sky suddenly turn a shade of blue, just got the camera set up and a thin layer of cloud drifted in, I've just got a blue 'Z' in the grey clouds to show for it, was an interesting few minutes :)
 
Gav. said:
I missed Friday nights, stayed up last night to see the dark sky suddenly turn a shade of blue, just got the camera set up and a thin layer of cloud drifted in, I've just got a blue 'Z' in the grey clouds to show for it, was an interesting few minutes :)
Click to expand...
Around what time was this?
 
ABTog said:
Probably my favourite shot from last night. 11 shot panorama at Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk.
Canon RP, RF35 f1.8 @f2.2, 2sec.

View attachment 422704

No real sign of anything here tonight, only a faint bit of green, but just cloud.
Click to expand...


That's a pretty amazing image but it does seem to slope down to the right....
 
jerry12953 said:
That's a pretty amazing image but it does seem to slope down to the right....
Click to expand...
That's due to the way that the channel of water bends away from you at that point (the whole channel there is on a bend) and mild distortion from the pano.
Cheers
 
It was cloudy here, until the early hours, and I did not want to write off the first part of next week by staying up too late on the off chance.
 
Noting for me either. I sat on the beach for ages nothing apart from a commercial aircraft circling very low (unusual for my area).
 
It was actually a good thing I just fell asleep right after posting my last message. Conveniently it was in the bed also!

Some of you in Scotland may have managed a shot or two if the clouds permitted. There was some activity in the red zone just nowhere near as high.

I might go to Elan Valley for some general spring landscape shots so clearly wouldn't mind some aurora for the parting shot.
 
I went to bed at 2330 :eek:. . . tired from work. I have seen the event twice before back in the day but did not get any photos. Those that have and posted - AMAZING !!!!
 
Here's some contributions from me. I do find it interesting that although we were looking at the same phenomenon, our interpretations of it are so different.

For an account of my evening's activities click on the link to the blog below.
 

Attachments

  • _5100025-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    _5100025-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    108.4 KB · Views: 14
  • _5100034-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    _5100034-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    139.3 KB · Views: 14
  • _5110072-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    _5110072-Enhanced-NR.jpg
    178.6 KB · Views: 14
Last edited:
Iit never happened , well at least here in East Sussex if you live only 5 minuite from the sea. I looked and zero not even a flickring street light, so as far as I m concerned it was a big huge con
 
Well, I managed to make it out late on Fri eve but the best I could do was Southport (seemingly along with most of the rest of Lancashire and Merseyside!) Light pollution was a challenge, but nowhere near as bad as at home. No real landscape opportunities to be had due to the amount of traffic and footfall but the Aurora was clearly visible and pretty much filled the sky at times - right overhead and actually stretching off to the south. My first Aurora so well chuffed!

Aurora overhead in Southport by Simon Lundbeck, on Flickr
 
Well watching it at Stonehenge was a hell of a lot more fun than trying to stitch a panorama of it together, which I'd say is somewhat akin to repeatedly smashing your head against a brick wall! Lightroom, Photoshop and PTgui all point blank refused to output anything resembling a complete panoramas so I ended up manually blending them in photoshop by hand.

That said, standing on the side of the a303, 2-3 feet from HGV's thundering past at 60mph also isn't what I'd call fun! Big shout out to the bloke near me sat in a camping chair, with one leg on the road and his back to oncoming traffic.... how you are still alive I have no idea!

Also, if you're out shooting the night sky, for the LOVE OF GOD turn off your bloody head torch! Standing there with it on, whilst having a casual conversation with your mate for 10 minutes really isn't cool. You're ruining everyone else's shots through your pure ignorance.

Anyway, I'm tired and grumpy so that's enough moaning for now!

The other highlight was watching the bloke who thought he was being clever lying down in the grass close to the stones. I'm guessing that he didn't realise there are cameras that can see you. I did enjoy watching him scramble to grab all his stuff and run/waddle through the long grass whilst being pursued by security as everyone on the fence line let out a huge laugh/cheer!53716015328_1ce27916a2_k.jpg53716013418_57b0b9139d_k.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have done "number crunching" of KP indexes for the last 23-ish years because solar peak cycle lasts 11-ish years and I added an extra year just be sure....
The Friday event was KP above 8 and reached 9 at certain points, so we'd need that level of reading to see what we saw I think.

I filtered for all readings of above or equal to 8 (not a huge lot)

Times it reached 9:
October/November 2003, May 2024

Times it reached high 8s:
November 2001, November 2003, November 2004

Times it hit 8 and low 8s:
May 2003, July 2004, May 2005, September 2017, March/April 2023

There's been a few "momentary reads" of low 8s in 2006/12/15/24 but I wouldn't count these. It might have hit 8 at one point during the day and if there's only the one reading of it on a certain day could have been easily missed it in the UK I think (from aurora watching perspective).

Been an interesting exercise. Basically it was more than 20 years ago we saw this level of activity.
See ya all in 20 years time :wave:
or may be in October/November is 2004 repeats :D

if anyone wants to dig deeper, data is here:

Data - Kp index

kp.gfz-potsdam.de kp.gfz-potsdam.de
 
Last edited:
What a weekend! This was the first time I'd seen the northern lights and I loved the experience. It started on Friday night with a whatapp message from a neighbour about what was happening in the sky. I had a look out and grabbed the Canon and super wide 11-24 and went looking for a good view. Instinctively I went to a spot about 10 minutes away a bit higher up with less light pollution and found a lot of people already there. This is the pic I've entered for the May challenge - the ultimate Mother Nature!

When I got back home my wife was keen to see too so we took a second trip and found this pic with the cows:

full


Saturday night I was prepared and scouted a better spot by the lake so the colours would reflect....but alas no northern lights:
full


Tonight it's cloudy and raining.

I could get the bug for northern lights. My friends who travel to Norway to see them tell me I'm spoiled!
 
TimHughes said:
I could get the bug for northern lights. My friends who travel to Norway to see them tell me I'm spoiled!
Click to expand...

Actually went to Norway just in March for this!
but don't regret it one bit. Different experiences there and here in the UK :)

Only regretful bit was the I could have saved couple hundred quid with a bit more planning of the Norway trip. But in grand scheme of things I will have easily lost couple 100 on my gear devaluing as soon as I have bought it new :p

lovely shots from Switzerland though, loving the cows shot :D
And if I am not mistaken there is a bit of the milkway popping through the aurora too :O
 
Last edited:
nandbytes said:
Actually went to Norway just in March for this!
but don't regret it one bit. Different experiences there and here in the UK :)

Only regretful bit was the I could have saved couple hundred quid with a bit more planning of the Norway trip. But in grand scheme of things I will have easily lost couple 100 on my gear devaluing as soon as I have bought it new :p

lovely shots from Switzerland though, loving the cows shot :D
And if I am not mistaken there is a bit of the milkway popping through the aurora too :O
Click to expand...
very likely, I went to one of my go-to spots for milky way, but this time the main subject was the northerly view :)
 
Clear skies but nothing to see down south. Think I'm done now for this season. 3 late nights in a row with kids who wake me up at 6-7am hasn't been fun.
 
Danniorn said:
Amazing photos!
It has been such a bummer that both of those days it was extremely clouded here in Iceland so i couldnt see or catch any northern lights.
I am though very happy for everyone who got amazing picture of these intense northern lights!
Click to expand...


I just wonder if it was too far north in Iceland for this marvellous display that so many of us darn sarf enjoyed?
 
Stitching panoramas from Friday is proving tricky:

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Lets see your panoramas

Two from this week's Dartmoor Photowalk with the Fuji GFX 50S.
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
jerry12953 said:
I just wonder if it was too far north in Iceland for this marvellous display that so many of us darn sarf enjoyed?
Click to expand...
I saw a similar comment from someone in the far north of presumably US on a different site. The sun hardly sets in the highest latitudes these days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top