Massive aurora alert for tonight!

LongLensPhotography said:
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.
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That's true; it may never have got dark enough. I spent some time in the arctic many moons ago and we met a researcher who told us that conditions were then perfect for the aurora but it was never dark enough to see it.

But I was also thinking that the aurora zone forms a kind of doughnut ring about the earth and I wonder if it was too far south for an aurora in the far north, or whether it formed a cap at both ends of the planet.
cardiff_gareth said:
Guess who slept through it all!!
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Noooooooo!
 
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jerry12953 said:
But I was also thinking that the aurora zone forms a kind of doughnut ring about the earth and I wonder if it was too far south for an aurora in the far north, or whether it formed a cap at both ends of the planet.
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FWIW I live in north west Scotland and we viewed the aurora on Friday night looking south, almost nothing to the north but the horizon was relatively bright.
Only ever recall viewing an aurora in the southerly direction once before up here because it does indeed form a ring as you say.
 
Scott Robertson said:
FWIW I live in north west Scotland and we viewed the aurora on Friday night looking south, almost nothing to the north but the horizon was relatively bright.
Only ever recall viewing an aurora in the southerly direction once before up here because it does indeed form a ring as you say.
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Interesting. Thanks.
 
Bit late to the party but here are a couple of mine from Norfolk on Friday

aurora-1-5.jpg

aurora-1-8.jpg
 
Scott Robertson said:
FWIW I live in north west Scotland and we viewed the aurora on Friday night looking south, almost nothing to the north but the horizon was relatively bright.
Only ever recall viewing an aurora in the southerly direction once before up here because it does indeed form a ring as you say.
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I was in Malvern which is by all accounts in the southern half of the UK and it was in ALL directions. to begin with, including SOUTH, but then we lost the south part.
 
Some lovely shots here
cardiff_gareth said:
Guess who slept through it all!!
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Similar here
We had the use of a camper van for a few days, few miles outside Kendal so pretty dark, think it would have been a great place to see the lights.
There on Thursday night but we didn't sleep well and so Friday morning went off to a hotel for the rest of the weekend.
Dinner Friday night at hotel, few drinks and got up Saturday to find we had missed it all. :headbang:
 
nog said:
Some lovely shots here

Similar here
We had the use of a camper van for a few days, few miles outside Kendal so pretty dark, think it would have been a great place to see the lights.
There on Thursday night but we didn't sleep well and so Friday morning went off to a hotel for the rest of the weekend.
Dinner Friday night at hotel, few drinks and got up Saturday to find we had missed it all. :headbang:
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sometimes drinks can cost you very dearly.
 
So jealous of everyone's images. Went up to Snowdonia for a long planned photography hike with my brother from sunrise. Got up to north Wales in plenty of time on Friday, few beers in the evening, nice early night ahead of the 4:45am alarm, only to wake up and see Facebook full of pics from from all of my neighbours' back home in Reading. Fuming! After a knackering day, even drove back up to Penn-y-pass at 11pm Saturday in hope of catching something but not a sausage. Had an absolutely incredible weekend and pleased with my non-Aurora shots, but just know this weekend will be remembered as the one when we didn't see the aurora :(
 
nandbytes said:
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!
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As I understand it, nobody will know exactly when solar maximum is until it has happened but the prediction is between now and the end of next year. Just like there has been during the build up, there should still be another 2-3 years of high activity as the cycle declines.

But as somebody said earlier, the aurora is a fickle beast, I took these two shots in Iceland in December 2019, during the last solar minimum!

8S6A5713-Edit.jpg8S6A5780-Edit.jpg
 
justinminns said:
As I understand it, nobody will know exactly when solar maximum is until it has happened but the prediction is between now and the end of next year. Just like there has been during the build up, there should still be another 2-3 years of high activity as the cycle declines.

But as somebody said earlier, the aurora is a fickle beast, I took these two shots in Iceland in December 2019, during the last solar minimum!

View attachment 422969View attachment 422970
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Iceland is different prospect to the UK. We need really high activities to see it in the UK. May be less so in Scotland but it's still a fair bit more than Scandinavian countries.
You are right we don't know the peak till we've seen it. But I think we have seen it now on last Friday. That is not to say there can't be another later in the year or next week :D

wonderful pictures by the way.
Getting a reflection shot is next on my list :D
I now have some shots from Norway and UK. But no reflections so far :(
 
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nandbytes said:
Iceland is different prospect to the UK. We need really high activities to see it in the UK.
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Absolutely, what we saw on Friday here was mind blowing, I guess what I was trying to say is there should be plenty more to come but activity continues throughout the cycle (even if you have to travel north to see it)
 
justinminns said:
Absolutely, what we saw on Friday here was mind blowing, I guess what I was trying to say is there should be plenty more to come but activity continues throughout the cycle (even if you have to travel north to see it)
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hope so, fingers crossed!
The issues isn't just seeing some high amounts activity, all the stars need to line up too - cloud cover, full moon vs. new moon, being at the right place, not falling asleep etc etc.
Really easy to miss it :(
 
nandbytes said:
hope so, fingers crossed!
The issues isn't just seeing some high amounts activity, all the stars need to line up too - cloud cover, full moon vs. new moon, being at the right place, not falling asleep etc etc.
Really easy to miss it :(
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Not forgetting time of year, the irony being that if you were in Iceland last Friday it probably wouldn't have been dark enough!
 
KIPAX said:
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Firstly I wouldn't go to Iceland for northern light only, Iceland isn't even in the arctic circle. if that's the main intention there's better places with higher level of chances.

I was in Norway/Tromso in March for chasing the aurora. The experience was different, and I'm still planning a trip to Finnish Lapland to chase them again.

If I were Iceland I wouldn't worry too much ;)

justinminns said:
Not forgetting time of year, the irony being that if you were in Iceland last Friday it probably wouldn't have been dark enough!
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Oh yes that too!
I saw some pictures from Lake Saimaa in south of Finland from Saturday night. There was still a bit of light there so the colours weren't as strong as here but definitely visible.
Not sure if Iceland would have been the same.
 
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nandbytes said:
Firstly I wouldn't go to Iceland for northern light only, if that's the main intention there's better places higher level of chances.

I was in Norway/Tromso in March for chasing the aurora. The experience was different, and I'm still planning a trip to Finnish Lapland to chase them again.

If I were Iceland I wouldn't worry too much ;)
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Agreed, having seen one of the best auroras of my life right here I'll still be going back to Iceland this winter for the incredible landscapes, the aurora is just the icing/cherry on top etc
 
Tricky01 said:
So jealous of everyone's images. Went up to Snowdonia for a long planned photography hike with my brother from sunrise. Got up to north Wales in plenty of time on Friday, few beers in the evening, nice early night ahead of the 4:45am alarm, only to wake up and see Facebook full of pics from from all of my neighbours' back home in Reading. Fuming! After a knackering day, even drove back up to Penn-y-pass at 11pm Saturday in hope of catching something but not a sausage. Had an absolutely incredible weekend and pleased with my non-Aurora shots, but just know this weekend will be remembered as the one when we didn't see the aurora :(
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The one that got away. We're currently at the peak of a sunspot 11 year cycle so you may get another chance in the next 12- 18 months.
 
TimHughes said:
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
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I ended up having to do it in photoshop manually, I just chucked all the images in as layers and expanded the canvas so it was big enough, lined them up manually and blended them in one by one using a layer mask. Photoshop, Lightroom and even PTGui all refused to automate it.
 
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