Aurora (Northern lights) 24-01-2012

19:45. This is the first time for an age that I've been able to see the Aurora this bright from my landing window

19:17

21:23

19:25

21:00

20:45

21:28

20:30

Panoramic 20:35

20:34

20:42

Aurora 22/01/2012

 Here are the photos I took during the Aurora of 

Sunday January 22nd 2012 from Spey Bay

17:45 Awaiting the arrival of darkness

18:15 As darkness fell the Northern lights became visible as a green glow

18:20 more structure beginning to appear 

18:30 Ursa Major through the Aurora above the Osprey and Salmon

 18:40

18:45 red and green can be seen

 

18:58 Clouds start moving in and are lit up by the light pollution of Lossiemouth

 

19:05 Rays start to appear

19:10 The Rayed Arch begins to dance over the Moray Firth

  My Daughters Heather and Hazel are rapped up warm against the north see winds

  20:15 The final image as the clouds rolled in, before taking taking Hazel home to bed, and Heather and me could have some supper before starting round two

  We returned at 22:00 fed and watered, and were met with this wonderful sight of clear sky to the NE, but the ominous looking dark clouds to the west was a warning of what was to come.

 

 

 22:50 The encroaching cloud began to spoil the view of the Aurora which was becoming very active. As you will see though for these final three images the Northern light show left the best to last.

 All of these pictures were taken with a Canon 300D, iso 800, AS 3.5, Exposure 25 seconds. The only processing done is stitching of the panoramas in Microsoft ICE, no Photoshop  here!

Aurora 21/01/2012

This is the first images of the start of the aurora from Speybay, not very bright but the camera picks it out well. Back home for a feed and a warm now will head out again if it flares up later.

Aurora 06th August 2011

These photos were taken on the night of 5/6th August from Spey Bay and my back garden

Noctilucent Clouds

Noctilucent clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the "ragged-edge" of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice. The name means roughly night shining in Latin. They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator.

They are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometers (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth's shadow. Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently discovered meteorological phenomenon; there is no evidence that they were observed before 1885.
To learn more or to report sighting go the NLC Observers homepage at http://www.nlcnet.co.uk/


Last night (7th July 2011), there was the best NLC display I have ever seen. The display lasted for over two hours and was from the horizon to the zenith.

This NLC display in the earlier hours of July 3rd 2010 was very short lived only lasting for 35 minutes between 01:00 to 01:35.






23:00 25th July 2009





Noctilucent clouds can form only under very restrictive conditions; their occurrence can be used as a sensitive guide to changes in the upper atmosphere. Since their discovery the occurrence of noctilucent clouds has been increasing in frequency, brightness and extent. It is theorised that this increase is connected to climate change.

Aurora 11/12th March 2011

This is the best Aurora display I have seen since 2003, brilliantly bright dancing rays from the horizon through Cassiopeia and in to Perseus. WONDERFULL

A big thank you to my daughter Heather for helping with these photos and keeping me company tonight.

Aurora 01st March 2011

These photos of the Aurora were taken for Spey bay looking over the Moray Firth between 22:45 to 00:10
Can you see the eye in the sky?