After what seems a bit of a drought in terms of aurora photography over the winter, this week was about to change all of that.
It started Sunday evening when we arrived home in time to capture the remaining stages of a bright aurora. This was the first aurora we’d seen since moving to the property last September.
What was quite exciting was seeing that the forecast for the aurora for the Monday evening was even stronger, with a predicted Kp-Index of 7 (strong storm). However you can imagine the disappointment when Monday arrived to have a day of complete cloud cover! The Met-Office forecast and phone weather apps did indicate that the skies would be clear to the north west and west of the Highlands in the evening. Consequently when the work day finished I made plans to head north west to Loch Maree.
I left around 7pm and during the hour’s drive to the location there seemed to be no indication of any clearing of the skies - was I in for a wasted trip? As I came over the high point of Glen Docherty to make the descent down to Kinlochewe the skies cleared and the excitement returned!
I travelled most of the way up the side of Loch Maree until I found a location where I could park and get a descent perspective of the northern sky with some horizon interest. Taking the first photo to see what the aurora was doing (around 8pm) showed little signs of the ‘strong storm’!
So it was a time for just waiting to see what would happen - with the car parked at an angle such that I could remain in it out of the cold while I waited.
The minutes ticked by and a few intermediate photos later, I noticed the sky was starting to change, which was about 8.45pm - the band of green light expanding and becoming more agitated:
The curtain of green even extended out towards the east enabling me to bring Slioch (a munro) into the image:
Standing there with the tripod, holding the remote shutter release I wasn’t expecting what was about to take place. It started as the belt of green across the entire northern landscape continued to increase with activity - enabling me to get the panoramic shot below:
It was as if someone had lit the touchpaper - the intensity of the green light magnified greatly and green streaks of light started to shoot skyward and then …. it happened. The photos below give a taste of the experience.
It was totally incredible - even the red pillars of light were visible to the naked eye (although not as bright as the camera picked up). It was totally astounding, as I rapidly was taking as many photos as I could manage (8-10 second exposure for each one!!!).
The intense light show even stretched as far as Slioch.
What was also breathtaking was the sheer height of the columns of light activity, they just seemed to extend way up into the atmosphere.
It was truly an incredible experience, that just seemed to go on and on … and I also noticed pulsating ‘clouds’ of green light shoot upwards into the heavens as if being discharged from the main activity. Impossible to capture with the camera.
As the activity eventually died down, a few final photos were taken before packing up and heading home again - totally in awe of what I’d just witnessed. One of creation’s amazing light shows.
