Northern lights for the first time from my back garden....

[ampegboy1]

We saw them clearly from our back garden on the NE London/SW Essex border, absolutely incredible - at one point half the sky was covered! I was amazed to see them at all, as we have a parade of shops nearby which, even on a clear night like last night, bathes half of the sky in a grey haze of ambient light.

Michael

 

[indy4x]

We've just got back from a "Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons" gig (Phil Campbell being an ex-Mötörhead Guitarist).
Caught a few flickers on the journey home.

Awesome, it's Newports turn tonight, unfortunately I'm on call so can't go

 

[Kayos]

Taken on a 5D MK2. 4 second exposure
I may be biased but I prefer these to the eleventy million phone camera pics I've seen on social media today

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

What you see is also a lot to do with your own eye sensitivity, we went out and Kim immediately said, wow looks at the colours, I mainly saw it in black and white.

She needs to wear sun glasses a lot even on cloudy days, whereas I barely feel the need for them.

 

[Seadog]

We saw them clearly from our back garden on the NE London/SW Essex border, absolutely incredible - at one point half the sky was covered! I was amazed to see them at all, as we have a parade of shops nearby which, even on a clear night like last night, bathes half of the sky in a grey haze of ambient light.

Michael

I wish that I'd known, I'd have stayed up.
You must be very near me

 

[ampegboy1]

Taken on a 5D MK2. 4 second exposure
I may be biased but I prefer these to the eleventy million phone camera pics I've seen on social media today

View attachment 448835

There's a lot to be said for point-and-shoot/automatic everything on a phone camera, plus the convenience of having something so capable in your pocket and ready to go, but I agree you can't beat a 'real' camera - I got my 400D out (admittedly, nowhere near as 'real' as a 5D, but... ) but what I thought was a recently-charged battery died just as I was about to press the shutter button so I decided to keep looking up rather than go back in and dig for the spare battery in case I missed anything spectacular!

What you see is also a lot to do with your own eye sensitivity, we went out and Kim immediately said, wow looks at the colours, I mainly saw it in black and white.

She needs to wear sun glasses a lot even on cloudy days, whereas I barely feel the need for them.

That's really interesting, I know when looking at deep space objects in the telescope that it's all black and white because there's so little light coming in at the distances involved, but I never realised the same could be true of something so close (astronomically-speaking!).

Michael

 

[slim_boy_fat]

'Twas overcast here. Atmospherics are playing havoc with some satellite channels though, keep getting "your Sky box is not getting a signal" but some channels are perfectly fine...

 

[julianthegypsy]

Our village outside Cirencester. We could clearly see the beams and red and green haze but the camera really brought it out. Best I've seen since I lived in Northern Alberta.

 

[ostosix]

Camera picks up a lot more colour wise than it looked in reality these from iphone 12. I nipped up onto roof after reading the post. In Lincoln btw

Glad i did, my pal had been to lapland tried to palm it off initially when i told him he was outside once i sent him some pics. then

 

[bert]

We had it in North Wiltshire. Annoyingly I'd been chasing seeing them for a few years and saw them 3 weeks ago having spend £3k on a cruise to Norway and I got them for free at home

 

[ampegboy1]

I wish that I'd known, I'd have stayed up.
You must be very near me

I think I probably am (Chigwell). In the past whenever there's been a chance I've popped out and seen nothing due to latitude and/or ambient light. I wasn't expecting anything last night until my sister up near Witham called me at 2330, shouting down the phone "Michael, I think I can see them, I can see them!" My other sister saw them from Walthamstow, about a third of a mile from the Crooked Billet.

Michael

 

[Seadog]

I'm E17, too.
I shouldn't have had the Jameson's nightcap

 

[Misterg]

Breathtaking here in North Wales. You could see the pink and green rays with the naked eye (camera really brings them out though - shame I didn't have a tripod).

 

[bricol]

I kept looking out but didn't see anything until I looked straight up. Other half is 12 yrs younger than me (and doesn't need spectacles) - she was describing colours that I couldn't see, and how they were changing. Once I play with the phone camera settings, I could see in the pictures what she could see in real time.

 

[Erie Fred]

Some Moosic to go along with watching:

 

[GRW]

Awesome, it's Newports turn tonight, unfortunately I'm on call so can't go

That's a shame. They were really on top form last night in Narberth (their support band "Fury" were really polished as well).
Well worth seeing if you like their kind of stuff.

 

[JOEPRO]

I have seen them in a tour in Iceland before. They drive hours out into middle of no where. They were breif and dancing in Iceland and still spectacular.

But the way they were so string and almost static last night was much better

 

[Bki26]

Pics at too big to upload here lol, taken just outside Glasgow.

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[Pete.]

Good job there's no such thing as a Triffid or you guys who have been out staring at the sky might be in a spot of bother

 

[Pond frog]

Good job there's no such thing as a Triffid or you guys who have been out staring at the sky might be in a spot of bother

Great book and I clearly remember the bbc version about 1980