Aurora Borealis red alert for the Uk tonight.

pastymuncher said:
Despite living in NE Scotland for 25 years I have never seen the Aurora as it's always cloudy whenever something interesting is going on in the sky. I have had my father send me pictures from back home in Newlyn in Cornwall of him seeing the Aurora and saying did you see it last night? I am sure he does it to wind me up!!
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It’s important to appreciate just how well a camera picks up the aurora compared to the naked eye. The wife got some decent pictures on her phone last year on a few different occasions but if you just looked at the sky with the naked eye you’d probably not have been able to make anything out.

Got nothing last night here in Norfolk though, too cloudy by the time the sun had set.
 
Was actually up pen-y-fan for sunset last night but didn't see the notification. So went home just after sunset. Tad annoyed.
But photos really amplify what you actually see.

In Norway 3 weeks ago I saw it dancing and got a decent phone pic.
My dslr 70d with 10-22mm f3.5 couldn't get it at all. No matter what settings I used.
Effects with a tripod and 3-4 seconds, it was just too blown out
Apparently you need a much wider aperture.

My phone got this on 6 seconds.

It isn't that green in real life, but it is pale green. The 6 seconds really adds to the colour intensity.

But it was magical. It danced in ribbons. I'll never forget it.

(the light is a hydro powerstation.)

qMSNQYv.jpg


That was taken here
pu1JunU.jpg
 
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413x said:
Was actually up pen-y-fan for sunset last night but didn't see the notification. So went home just after sunset. Tad annoyed.
But photos really amplify what you actually see.
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Disaster @413x , one of last nights stand out images I saw this morning was from Pen-y-Fan, first image in the article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68465549
I Missed it by the 30mins waiting for the misses to finish work, hoping to repeat the show I saw in November but with new gear.
 
Apparently the sun will be very active the next couple of years so hopefully there will be many more opportunities to see the aurora.
 
413x said:
In Norway 3 weeks ago I saw it dancing and got a decent phone pic.
My dslr 70d with 10-22mm f3.5 couldn't get it at all. No matter what settings I used.
Effects with a tripod and 3-4 seconds, it was just too blown out
Apparently you need a much wider aperture.
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had you tried any preparatory work like exposures on the star movement at night (.. eg V & ISO mod.. )
Had thought I should do some trials for a future dash to north norfolk coast. ... maybe ray needs to provide some pearls.
Before heading out for a night of skywatching, I had pre-programmed the camera settings I thought would suit northern light photography. I chose an aperture of f/4 (the widest setting on my lens), 4-second shutter speed to let in more light to the image sensor and ISO 1600 to increase sensitivity without introducing too much image noise.
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JRJ said:
Disaster @413x , one of last nights stand out images I saw this morning was from Pen-y-Fan, first image in the article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68465549
I Missed it by the 30mins waiting for the misses to finish work, hoping to repeat the show I saw in November but with new gear.
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I've been told it isn't that good from naked eye. So I didn't feel I missed much. But I would have liked to have seen what it was really like in the UK vs Norway.
 
jpaul said:
had you tried any preparatory work like exposures on the star movement at night (.. eg V & ISO mod.. )
Had thought I should do some trials for a future dash to north norfolk coast. ... maybe ray needs to provide some pearls.
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This is what I tried actually. Bumping up the iso. 4 seconds. Max aperture.

It looked worse than the phone.
I couldn't get rid of the noise. Or it was too dark (all over).

Someone there had 8k worth of canon mirrorless kit. And he said (and I had read) that with my relatively cheap kit, aps-c and 3.5 max aperture you struggle to get anything. And it wasn't a hyper intense show.

My phone did much better with its processing
 
Apparently was visible briefly from the north Devon coast, few people I know got photos, though there isn't much to see.
 
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Well, the newspapers are saying there will be a high chance of aurora activity tonight but the Aurora Watch UK website isn't showing it yet (will possible update later). Might take a look out later.

Edit - Red Alert!

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the r4pm report also suggested that with eclipse glasses maybe able to see solar flares during daylight (too late to see ones that created tonights ctivity)
need to look up how to diy them.
 
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