Aurora tonight

Trouble is....its absolutely tipping it down here at the moment!

Cloudy here, but I am hoping it will be clearer later.

The moon is visible, so there is a chance.

No chance here,

Usually there are a few days of the sunspots that cause auroras, so there could be another chance.

I saw it once in Oxfordshire. it was red and looked as if the woods were on fire until I noticed the pattern of the lights. There is little chance of me seeing it here again unfortunately

Thanks for this, I'm thinking of driving north out of town this evening for a pub meal so will also head for the hills in search of a sighting, if it stays clear that is.
Wish me luck.

DS was out with his camera last night and he had photos on FB before I went to bed. He is lucky that he lives within driving distance of beautiful countryside in the very north of England. He receives the notifications and is usually on standby to go.

Thanks Elegran

Harrigran Any chance of PMing me a link to his photos? I saw absolutely nil (but I went no further than my bedroom window, which probably accounts for that) I spent a few days in Reykjavic at the beginning of February in the hope of seeing the aurora but the weather stopped me seeing any (but Iceland is worth seeing anyway).

No bother Elegran, sending his flickr address by PM.

I have just had a look at his flickr page and last night's photos are not uploaded on there yet, never mind there are still some nice photos. As you are a FB friend perhaps you can see the photos on my page.

You do really need to be outside to see anything....and to have been out a good 20 mins for your eyes to grow accustomed.
Its also always worth while taking a few pictures...a tripod or similar help as you need quite a long exposure. Any modern camera is much better than our eyes at capturing the lights and you can be pleasantly surprised by a few glimmers on a screen that you did not see in real life.

Privacy settings won't allow you to see the photo on FB so I will add a photo here.

That is lovely, Harrigran.
The BBC Scottish website has photographs taken on the Isle of Skye, in Aberdeenshire and North Berwick, and near Glasgow.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-39139692

There is another amber alert for tonight. aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/alerts/

The only way we get to see it here in Norfolk is with time lapse cameras. We have tried looking north from the coast but only saw a very slight greeny white tinge. The time lapse photo on the TV the following night from nearly the same spot looked really green and wonderful!

So jealous Harrigran! I'm off to Norway in a couple of weeks and if it doesn't make an appearance there I shall be cross!

Just spent the last half hour peering at the sky from my bedroom window in the hope of seeing the Aurora - no luck. I have an app on my phone 'aurora notifier' . If it gives a reading of 4 or more, which it has done today (5 yesterday) there is supposed to be a chance of a sighting. We are probably too far south in Yorkshire to see them well though I did see a green streak one night and woke OH to verify it. He wasn't very impressed, for some reason...
It's been my life-long ambition to see the Northern Lights and I dropped loud hints about doing one of those Northern Lights flights for my birthday but of course there's no guarantee of seeing them. Pity about your Reykjavik trip Elegran.
Well, back to the window again now.

I didn't get a chance to go aurora watching, but here's a story about it from my time as a young(isn't) mother. My eight year old son and I were out walking the dog in the small town where we were living. A beautiful display of the northern lights began, so we found a dark place to watch it, not too far from our house in Cumbria. There were greens and reds and purples, and beautiful shafts reaching up into the night sky. The display didn't set long and we felt really lucky to have been out at the right time. My son went to school the following morning and told his teacher about it. His teacher didn't believe him, telling him that there was no aurora activity last night. My son wasn't bothered as I had told him that sometimes the displays are very fleeting.

Oh, Grannybags I do hope you get to see them. We've promised to go on a cruise to Norway with friends next winter. I hate cold and my main reason for going (apart from their company) is to see the Northern Lights. I shall be very miffed if I don't get to see them!

Thanks Nfk that's the main reason I wanted to go too! We've bought lots of thermals....

Add a waterproof raincoat, Grannybags If it anything like Iceland you will get lots of horizontal rain.