23 feb.

Last night my season total reached 75. This is a bit of a psycological milestone for me raising the chance of dare I say it.....no I wont just now !! Its all to easy jinx things. Last nights display came storming in in solid style. There was red showing way up in the sky to 50-60 deg. With such a tall display showing it was seen all over the UK, well those who had a view through the clouds that it. Cloud cover had a few issues for us as well. We never realy got to see a wide horizon anywhere I went last night. With this in mind and along with some badly failed panorama shots spurred me on to head out and hit a couple of classic locations for some narrower views. The subjects chosen were the standing stones of Brodgar and Stenness and for once I was lucky enough to hit both stone circles whilst they were empty and the aurora provided a nice backdrop for the shots. I allways prefer the location empty for the atmosphere plus its less of a pain in the arse for everybody else while im doing short exposures to set up a composition with a light painting torch. All in all Its been huge fun.....here are some shots from the standing stones......hope you enjoy.

We have activity tonight as astronomical darkness is falling. ACE is looking great but snowy showers are tracking towards us....Photos and more to follow as things develop.......

74

Tonight the skys have cleared as we wait for snow. Theres a fair glow going on although it took a while to find a gap in the clouds.

73

I wasnt expecting much at all but the lights are being seen down the east coast. Its poor out with cloudy skies and wintery showers.

72

Moving out of the HSS now and things are quietning down. We got thin activity but lost it behind clouds and rain. Through the ocasional gaps you could see that it wasnt coming to much and like that it stayed.

71

Along wait for the cloud to open finaly produced some colour. Its more rotten conditions just like last night. Last night was worse as it goes, a second night of strong displays missed out on. Never mind tho lots of folks saw it a long way south so thats pretty good. It took a long exposure to bring this out and im right happy with my intervalometer opperating the bulb setting.

A collection of last nights shots for 70.

70

I hit 70 tonight although Im saving celebrations untill my 75th. Its been a good strong show, a nice change from the thin colour of late !

69 for Valentine

At 22.00 a pale difuse aurora began to show. Almost imeadiatly lost to rising cloud.

68

Its been a while since we had any thing at all to report but we are on our second glow in a few nights. We have been overcast so much of late its been a little testing to say the least. We are waiting to see if there will be an incoming CME but so far its not showing on instruments, the next 24hrs will show if its going to pass earth.....we wait paitently

Tonight the solar wind is storming in. We are seeing a strong light considering the moon is so bright. Cloud cover is really stoping us seeing any movment when it was there but at least we have some nice colour. Increased solar wind speeds look set to continue so its all to the good. The morns night might be better !

65

Poor conditions with the weather made sightings a bit of a trial tonight. The CME arrival i was hoping for isnt showing but theres other flares on the way so im looking forwards to the morns and the morns morns night. Transit of mercury the morn at 1400. !

63 and 64 came as a bit of a damp squib. Last night was cloudy and poor. There were sightings from Dundee which encouraged me to try later. At the back of 3 a glimpse out of the window showed a star so I ventured out for a test shot. A 60 sec exposure showed a dying glow but still its a tick !. The EPAM levels continue to slowly rise giving hope of a show at some point. In the mean time everybody is bracing them selfs for the onslaught of the snow demons. Personaly im not that keen but would like a nice snowy landscape for some aurora. That said the moon is gaining size and will probably be the cause of some burn outs if we do.....anyway fingers crossed.

Another in the bag !

The elivated EPAM levels may have been responsible for an active display last night. It came up fast and burst in to life. I managed a couple of hours back and fro watching before bead. Anne Gascoine had a great view after three in the morning so it must have lasted well. We are now waiting to see if the fillament eruption on the 24th is going to bring anything nice with it. If it is headded our way then hopefully it will be here the morn or wednesday night......watching and waiting in the North Isles !!

61 sticks its head over the horizon before being clouded out....early days yet tho !

Sixty has come at last with a nice but small arc. The Bz dived north quite quickly and the arc seemed to shrink with it. Its just another wait and see. After nearly a week of raised activity the EPAM monitor is sinking back as well. Quietning down..??

59

A nice low glow tonight which came up fast and danced, Its been the best night for colour for ages all be it a little low slung.

58 came tonight with a low glow thats still showing some pinky top.

57

We have been watching a small blow from a CME, unfortunatly its only been visible to us on instruments and the earths magnetic field has been doing what it does best. Its a little frustrating but hay so is having no spell check so bullocs to it all. Repeated test shots over two nights either showed thick cloud or a bright shiny sky with on sign of aurora whats so ever. Eventualy just before bed I had some colour on screen but lost the horizon when I tried again. Lucky I put it on the computer for a closer look or it might have languished for days...as has happened before..ahhem......anyway this shot was shot on bulb for 90 seconds whilst i looked for colour. The sammy was at 2.8 and 1600iso.  So this is one more to the list but man oh man I am gagging for a bit of dancing!!...Here also as an after thought is a shot of the green comet Lovejoy. Easy seen in binoculars, its approaching the Pliadiese (seven sisters) This small cluster of stars is found to the right of Orions shoulders...have a look and see....like a green star.!!

56

A slow start to the year and we ad another to the list. Its the thinest of thin sightings but they all count.

Five five

After a day of good storm darkness produced little to see till now. We have aurora peeking above the horizon. Thats 55 and i am off back to watch how it develops.

54

On the night of the full moon we have a display that would have everybody cheering if there had been no moon !!

Here we are in the new year and i have only managed four aurora since christmas eve and even then on was only found on the big screen days after it was taken ! Never mind we are off and running for a new year. The next couple of weeks will have the moon against us but we will see how it goes....Happy new year to anybody reading !

49

Its christmas eve proper and we are looking like a green christmas !!

48

Last night the Xflare rolled in and over us to bounce off and carry on going. It was a bit gutting but as it was fairly unexpected after all the experts had dismissed the chance of a hit. Never mind tho. The proton levels have remained high and this afternoon another CME hit. This time the Bz has been more southerly and there has been a good show thats been seen all over, less here tho as we have cloud issues. Personaly I am just glad to have made another tick before christmas. !!

47 rolled in tonight on the crest of a plasma wave. A minor CME impact brought about enhanced conditions and we have a large static arc. Theres a bit to go with it yet if we can get through the increasing showers.

46

Sunday came and went with us giving little show. Other places managed an ark and spikey rays. The green i caught changed to airglow in the harsh light of the big screen so so much for that. Sky called at the back of nine tonight but it took us a while to get a gap.

45

We have a nice glow tonight. There is a coronal hole just become geo effective and we are looking forwards to some aurora over the coming few nights, The best news has been on Solen. To quote them...A filament eruption mainly in the southwest quadrant may have caused a potentially Earthbound CME. If that is the case the CME would reach Earth on December 13. This would be on sunday night...I am looking forwards to looking !!

8/9th

As below some rays after the first squall had passed.

44

There was a great clear sky before moon rise tonight. A crisp looking grey glow soon showed up green in my first tester of the night. Exciting as it was I rushed in to post the sighting to the Orkney group. Once again I lost a display behind fast moving cloud and as i type noe the rain is rattling off the windows. Theres a big blow coming from the west but hopefully there will be gaps between the cloud.

Last nights marginal conditions. Its a tilt the screen to see the green sort of thing !!

Next...just

In a night of great stats it looked like there should have been a half decent show. Its unfortunate but it just did not happen. The horizon was doggedly full of cloud with little breaks to be seen. Above was a different story with stars showing between clouds in the moon light. I managed this most marginal of marginal shots with colour just showing. Wintery showers have arived now and its upped the game of standing outside taking testers thats for sure !!

42 came un noticed untill I reviewed the nights photos.. I only managed a couple of gaps in the cloud tonight. Its been a poor night for weather but other places have really done the biz. Shetland in particular had some fantastic structure tonight as Kareen Aurora Hunters photos on ARS show. This is a fuzzy one of mine for the record.

41

41

41 was a strange beast. A test shot produced a few very faint rays. Seeing them on screen I could just see them in the sky. The following photos showed rays moving about well above the horizon. Above and below was showing no real hint of colour be it green or pink. Cloud swept back in and the view was lost.

40

The first of december has brought the 40th arurora on camera. Just a light between clouds just now hopefully the cloud will clear in the over the next couple of hours and we might see something. Its been quiet for a while now but the wind is picking up and moon permitting we might be seeing a bit more in the coming nights.

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.