Thirty nine gets swallowed by dugged cloud. Last go from the garden gate for the night.

39

Thirty nine comes in from a shout from Skye. I had about given up with the sky, stars were all that was to be seen then it slowly clouded over. Its a letterbox yiew tonight but they are bright. and have been showing structure...above our cloud base tho !!

Night winds a coming !

This is a view of the sun right now. If you squint you may see the sunspot groups. Directly facing us is 2219 which has the capacity for C flares, below right is 2216 a group thats quiet and likely to remain that way. The lower group to the left is 2217. This group has been emitting low level C flares and might do something for us yet . Above this and further back towards the eastern rim is 2218. This group seem quiet as well. Two new groups are rotating in to view and are yet to be numbered. The one thing thats its not possible to see in my snap shot is a coronal hole in the northern hemisphere thats about to have an influence on the solar wind speed. I have seen 500kps+ predicted so hopefully with some southerly Bz we might have a little bit of colour in the sky over the coming nights.

38

Last night was looking severely quiet across the space weather pages. All was not to be lost with a couple of sightings on AUK. For us tho all we could do was read reports as we were socked in with cloud. Every so often whilst checking the sky you could see stars here and there. I usually count stars appearing as a good sign and sure enough eventually the skys cleared enough to see some of the northern horizon. It was pretty hopeless for activity. Earlier in the evening I had been advised that longer exposures with an intervalometer (silly name I know) would be a way to go. With this I could increase my exposure times so it would be worth as much as a couple of stops on the exposure. I gave this a go with my first attempt at shooting bulb. I was pleased as punch to pull this colour out of the sky, especially as there was little discernible colour in the 30 sec exposures I had been doing. This exposure went to two and a half mins and on looking what I had got when it was over left me well chuffed. Its not going to win any prizes in the pretty picture category but I think we have a new weapon in the armoury for those dire nights and marginal conditions....38 in the bag !

37

I thought last nights was faint, tonights beats even that. But the clouds are clearing a bit now so fingers crossed that the view may clear.

36

A long wait for the cloud to clear produced a faint looking top about 22.30. I dont think it will go to much. Over the last few days the air has properly changed. There are cold winds coming off the atlantic.

35

Another night of low slung activity with a good spike the back of ten/eleven. I managed to totaly miss it as well....never mind.

All to brief tonight.

I posted a bit early last night and things developed a god bit more with an active display. The ark produced rays bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. It was short lived but very enjoyable after all the nights of cloud. Tonight a sighting from Groats had me out early and catching a good top. The top is the highest part of the aurora below this is the green. The weather was to go against us tho. Within an hour or so clouds swept in and aren’t looking like going anywhere . Frustrated yet again the clouds thicken as the magnetometers quicken.

Tonight

Yet another frustrating night !!

After nights and nights of frustrating cloud with aurora above it I managed a glimpse of lights last night. Tonight its the clearest its been for ages. This along with the bonus of no moon set the stage for a show however its a show that was destined not to go on. We did for a moment have the top of an aurora on camera but all to soon the stack plots showing activity flat lined. It looks like thats that for tonight even the sky id hazy now and the crisp display of stars is gone....33...just.

31

Well I managed to blag 3 aurora over the last five nights. There has been a good wait for a glancing CME blow. It arrived early and bounced off to little effect. Most of the activity is the results of an enhanced solar wind from coronal hole high speed streams and sector boundary crossings. Tonight’s has been seen away down the south of Scotland and a lot of folks have managed to catch it. Shame it wasnt seller death dust falling through the skys dramaticly lighting up all before and below it but that just wasnt to be, there is still time for 2205 to produce the goods tho. Fingers crossed.

28

Tonight we have a big arc with a big moon and big big clouds. There are good looking areas coming in to sight now and given a few days we will see what happens....

A low slung light changing slowly low in the north marks No 27. Surely its time for something much more substantial !!!