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As above
Yeah a shame it’s too cloudy here.
Cloudy here but been told it’s been caught on Skiddaw and Blencathra webcams
Do you mean Scotland and some parts of northern England? 😉
No, it's a red alert which means it should be visible from most of the UK. In theory that is.
Cloudy here but been told it’s been caught on Skiddaw and Blencathra webcams
Caught? Doing what exactly?
😉
nup canny see a thing from south east side of glasgow. clear crisp night too. Think you'd need to head up the campsies to see it from here.
Is it? Where? When? How?
nup canny see a thing from south east side of glasgow. clear crisp night too. Think you’d need to head up the campsies to see it from here.
Aye, same here, lights of coastal towns to the north meaning have to go too far inland, and I can never be bothered 😅
Well locally it seemed 'meh', we stayed until we shivered. There was colour and light on the horizon, but sadly clouds to the north. A couple of the photos show an odd green and red tinge, but not great at all.
We still have too much light pollution from central belt and Perth.
I've seen some amazing pics online already, so clearly some had a good show....
Edit: and the initial red peak was really high. It should have been most of UK, if you could find space away from the light pollution.
This useful for figuring out where you might be able to see it (assume you’re looking north)
https://gostargazing.co.uk/light-pollution-map
Too much light pollution here. Looking north means I'm looking straight over Manchester.
Seen some lovely pics on Instagram from not that much further north though.
Do remember that lots of the pictures are taken on £3k of camera kit on a timelapse - it shows more than the eye sees regularly...
Yeah if the pic has more and brighter stars than you’d normally expect to see the pic isn’t representative of the human eye view
Anyone ever had luck heading into the Carron Valley for this sort of thing? Didn't realise it was on last night until too late to try
mashr
Free Member
Anyone ever had luck heading into the Carron Valley for this sort of thing? Didn’t realise it was on last night until too late to try
If they are out, I can't imagine why you wouldn't see them if you headed up the likes of tomtain (easiest top to get to in the campsies.)
Here's a stupid question: how fast do the light patterns change? When you watch videos of them, it often looks like wafting, flickering patterns almost like giant flames in the sky, but I'm never sure if those videos are shown in real time or sped up. I can't remember if (or at what rate) stars move in the background of videos like that, and this place is better than Google. 🙂
Do remember that lots of the pictures are taken on £3k of camera kit on a timelapse – it shows more than the eye sees regularly…
Even phone cameras do a decent job of long-exposure shots these days
Aurora flights from earlier this week
Went for a drive up to Queens view near the Whangie north of Glasgow. around 12:30am we were treated to a sight. with the naked eye the colours are pale, but you do see these columns of light appear and disappear fairly quick. it's not the ribbons of light you see in most photos, but it's very impressive (for someone who's never seen it before)
Point a camera at it and you see bright greens and red glow.
if it stays clear today we'll be back up just before 9pm
No obvious aurora in Devon last night but a long (five minute) exposure of the Milky Way was ruined by the green glow that cameras pick up well.
Yeah activity since last night has been nutty so fingers crossed for tonight.
Aurorawatch have put out a prediction it will be on again tonight.
A 3 hour aurora watching flight must be up there with one of the least sustainable things to do.
Enjoy the majesty of the natural environment while trashing the planet.
Yeah and the first flight was from Glasgow the day COP26 started
A 3 hour aurora watching flight must be up there with one of the least sustainable things to do.
Enjoy the majesty of the natural environment while trashing the planet.
better or worse than taking a drive into the hills to see it? 😉
asking for a friend...
better or worse than taking a drive into the hills to see it?
How many tonnes of CO2 equivalent did the trip to the hills cause to be put into the atmosphere?
For the 3 hour flight it was probably around 750 kg per passenger.
I have lots of advance information about this, my daughter works in the Space Weather programme, she does the analysis from satellite data to work out if solar flares and coronal mass ejections will pass through the earth, how strong they're likely to be and makes the dashboards that various customers, domestic and international, use (Proud Dad moment). The Met Office have a public website which is pretty interesting, I hope they'll put up a lightweight version of the commercial dashboards on their website.
I've never actually seen the aurora myself. I'd imagine though that we are just too far south to see them in their full pomp, and if you do see them here, they are likely to be smaller and on the distant horizon, ie you are just really catching the top of them?
What I imagine anyhow, and I guess why i've never went out of my way to go and see them.
A 3 hour aurora watching flight must be up there with one of the least sustainable things to do.
It's not great but much the same as taking any flight to anywhere. Better than a 1.5 hour return flight to go on holiday I suppose, given that there's no fortnight of conspicuous consumption in the middle of the other planet-trashing.
For the 3 hour flight it was probably around 750 kg per passenger
Probably nearer to 250 kg.
Would it be even remotely worth heading for a high point on the south coast? God good dark skies in the South Downs but wondering if we are just too far south.
from past experience on dartmoor, you might pick up a faint green on long exposures but that is pretty much it.
Probably nearer to 250 kg.
Have you factored in the "non-CO2 emissions released by planes at high altitude"?
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy recommends that to "capture the maximum climate impact" of flights, CO2 emissions figures should be multiplied by 1.9 to reflect the effect of non-CO2 emissions released by planes at high altitude, which, scientists say, increase the warming effect.
However you work it out it seems like a hell of a lot of consumption for one pleasant evening (if you like being in a plane with tiny windows for 3 hours).
I'd argue the week long holiday with a 1.5 hour flight at each end is much more justifiable as you're getting a whole week of relaxation out of that.
Any recommendations of nearby places to see it from Marple (Stockport) tonight? Or does the light pollution from MCR and Sheff render the whole of the peaks useless?
However you work it out it seems like a hell of a lot of consumption for one pleasant evening (if you like being in a plane with tiny windows for 3 hours).
I’d argue the week long holiday with a 1.5 hour flight at each end is much more justifiable as you’re getting a whole week of relaxation out of that.
I definitely agree it's profligate. I don't think that even having a really really good time or an individual getting a week's relaxation out of it would make it OK.
Looks like another peak in activity around 10 tonight.
Might just have to take a wee drive.... ahem "ride", obviously...... north for a look
Nothing visible in Southampton so obviously fake news
Got to wait until night-time to be fair
We are planning a trip out tonight...
looks like it's bloody clouding over, but us too Matt!
This useful for figuring out where you might be able to see it (assume you’re looking north)
I already knew I lived near a bad area for light pollution, but that just pee's me off - the refinery at Grangemouth looks to be the brightest, i.e. worst light-polluting area of the whole of Scotland.
Saying that, I've seen a decent display from North Third (western edge of Stirling) when out biking years ago. Only ever time I've had success and was a total fluke.
Looking forward to the London sky being lit up like a Christmas tree tonight then 🤣🤣🤣
More chance of see Divali fireworks.
I’ve been lucky enough to go to the Aurora Sky Station in Abisko. It’s pretty spectacular when you get a good evening.
Aurorawatch have put out a prediction it will be on again tonight.
Damn it I’m in the contact centre tonight so I’ll only see VDUs.
I'm lucky enough to be in Tromso at present. Normally it's chucking it down, or snowing, but the last two nights there's been some occasional breaks on the clouds. Next time I'm here my proper camera is coming with me, or at least a gorillapod for my phone.
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lots of artefacts in this one, but you can see the green glow the aurora adds to the horizon.
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AuroraWatch saying 'No significant activity' just at the minute. I take it unless it says otherwise it's not worth waiting out, in the Northern England at least?
I've seen the forecasts saying the same
Went out last night to the north-end of Mull looking towards Ardnamurchan - there was a faint, green glow but nothing to the visible eye apart from an amazing meteor that explored/flared on impact and the Milky Way was amazing.
If I’d done a 20 second exposure and some software enhancements I could have created some of the technicolour shots on the news today.
I have seen the aurora lots of times in the Arctic winter - seeing it by eye when you’re out in the cold, cold wilderness at night is a bit more special - it appears slowly and moves across the sky, but not like those time-lapse shots. The red and purple colours are a bit rarer - you really need to get way up into the polar regions to have a real chance of seeing them by eye - a plane a 30,000ft makes it a bit easier.
amazing meteor that explored/flared on impact and the Milky Way was amazing.
Saw that meteor, it was amazing alright!