When you get wind of a chance of seeing a geomagnetic storm hit the UK skies giving us unlucky ones that live a bit too far south a chance of seeing the Northern Lights then thats something worth seeing.
It won’t be the first time seeing them. Despite two trips to Canada and stargazing in the ‘dark sky’ area of Jasper we never got to see them there where they are actually quite common. Well maybe a touch. We did see a slight green hue over the mountains in the distance but it never developed more than that and we missed out. That’s how it goes with the Aurora Borealis. They’re a little unpredictable and you need luck on your side.
Fast forward to November last year and Sally got us on a dedicated flight to see them. We flew north from Birmingham and spent time, with special permission to turn all the interior and exterior lights, off circling in the air east of The Orkney Isles and we did get to see them although viewing was obviously restricted to the windows and taking it in turns with each other too.
So last night was a nice, warm evening munching pizza we’d picked up on the way back from go-karting with Dan and a beer with our neighbour. As darkness descended the stars came out and we flicked to satellite spotting and waiting for the ISS to pass over at 10.36pm which we saw. A little later I took a pic and you could see a tinge of colour in the sky but we retired to bed. I fell asleep pretty much straight away but diligent Sally kept an eye out and nearer midnight (I think!) she woke me up all excited….and wow!
So let me explain the Northern Lights to manage your expectations. What you see on pictures, filtered or not is reserved exclusively for cameras. The naked eye will see the Lights but you will never see the deep, vivid colours cameras have a nack of picking up. What you will see are much more muted colours and patterns.
My camera, a Google Pixel 8, is pretty decent taking pictures in the dark so I let it loose last night and the results speak for themselves. Quite an event to behold. The word is we might get treated to some more tonight, so fingers crossed!
