The aurora borealis in Scotland. You must be kidding right?! Nope
Total Integration time: 10 second exposure
Moon coverage: 0%
Location: Northern Hemisphere
Bortle: 4
As a kid, I always wanted to see the northern lights, but always thought I would never get a chance. I even thought I would need to travel further north to Iceland or Norway to see tan aurora, but how wrong was I! I spoke to some people who said this was the strongest geomagnetic storm for we had seen for such a long time.
The Northern Lights from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland
On October 10, 2024, a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun caused a severe geomagnetic storm that led to the aurora borealis being visible across the UK and North America, and most of Scotland, if you weren't clouded out that is, and we were treated to what I can only describe as, the most soul cleansing thing I have ever seen!
So what causes these dancing displays of reds and greens and blues and purples? A large flare and filament combination left the sun in October, and the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) arrived at Earth in the 10th and 11th October and stayed for a few days or so after this fantastic visual treat. I had clouds after this one and didn't manage to see the Aurora that happened a few months before this one.
Most people who are into space stuff use lots of space apps to help them plan or image things in space, ISS transit monitor, Aurora watch apps, weather apps such as Clear Outside and lunar calculators etc. These can help with planning imaging sessions or events, but as this was aurora event was pretty widely spoken about in the news, I didn't need an app to tell me the aurora was above my head.
It was so strong, I could actually feel it and see it all around me. Yeah, I know that sounds really weird that I could feel it around me, but I seriosly feal that I was being engulfed by the aurora.
This was my viewpoint looking towards zenith, the uppermost and highest part of the night sky and from about 11.30pm on the 11th October 2024, I stood outside in my garden just watching for about two hours and took the odd snap in between. I swear I could hear sounds too, but that was probably my mind playing tricks on me. Or maybe I can hear colour! LOL
Some of the images you see in the gallery above were ever so slightly tweaked and the saturation was increased, but this is pretty close to what I saw with my own eyes from my back garden.
I really hope you get a chance to see a display like this at least once in your life; it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I hope you see it in Scotland in your back garden.
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