This October in the northern hemisphere we were provided an amazing aurora display on the evening of the 10th. In previous scheduled viewing periods, it always seemed to transpire that the skies were filled with rainclouds for me but this year I finally managed to get some photographs of the event. I’ve always wanted to head further northward to experience the phenomenon in full, somewhere like Lapland with the stark beauty of the landscape and the vast beyond collide in a cascade of illumination. The colours were exceptionally vivid even to the naked eye on this occasion, and it was such a privilege to be in a dark enough area to fully enjoy the experience and shoot longer exposures without much light-bleed from the neighbourhood.
The main display for my location was around 10pm BST, with a burst of red and green in the sky visible to the naked eye, as well as through longer exposure on your camera. The coronal mass ejection from the sun, which happened on the 9th October, travelled at almost 2.4 million kilometers per hour and registered as a G4 on the NOAA weather scale. [ NOAA Report ]
It would have been interesting to have more scientific apperatus aboard the satellite I'm working with at the moment to see if there were any adverse affacts from the event. There is always the risk of unwanted electrical operation or damage to spacecraft when encountering large solar storm debris and it would be nice to have collected some sensor data during this time.
Perhaps you caught glimpse of the event this October?
Keywords: Space Nature Aurora Borealis Photography North