frogesque

Thanks Catch. Your pic just about sums up current conditions but we live in hope. With luck there may be a Foehn effect for the east coast. Really surprising the difference a few miles makes around here if there's a westerly flow.

Looking at forecasts for weather and aurora, think I will head as far east as I can and take up station overnight at either Crail or St. Andrews. Last night was a total washout. Kp hit 7 last night and is still currently running at 6. Just hoping the cloud keeps off till morning.

Aye Moki, and KP has just hit 6.

Extensive cloud cover over the UK tonight and chucking it down here. Aural oval looking good and magnetometers kicking off for anyone lucky enough to have clear skies. Possible aurora down as far as Scottish Borders, maybe beyond.

Nooooooo!

Cloud cover was rubbish here overnight but have seen a nice pic from Dornoch. Activity dropped as darkness fell but picked up again after midnight.

Currently Kp6. Don't know how long lived this event is and may be over by the time it gets dark. Probably worth keeping half an eye out if you have clear skies. Pretty rubbish here just now.

Will have to see how this develops, could go either way. Mildly optimistic atm.

Bz gone slightly south and have seen a pic from Coldingham showing a faint aurora. Cloudy grot again here so can't confirm.

To answer my previous question, Solarham have the latest flair coming from departing region AR2673.

Is this from AR2673 or a new site? If it's AR2673 it's unlikely to be geo effective. Even so, X8.2 is still impressive.

Saw levels had dropped and we had wall to wall grotty cloud cover so didn't go out last night. Some nice pics doing the rounds on the webby thingy from the North of Scotland.

Aye Mushy! Bz has gone back to zero and it was hovering about -20°. Solar wind speed is still pretty good though and things can change very quickly. Science with a soupçon of black magic! I'm also getting clouded out so will have to see how it goes

We are near the autumn equinox so not much difference across the British Isles. You really need astronomical darkness so at least an hour after sunset. Moonlight will still be a problem for naked eye viewing and you want the darkest spot with a clear view to the North you can find. Photography is less problematic and most SLRs will cope fairly well. They pick up a lot of detail and colour you can't see sometimes. Mine is ancient but I use a wide angle fast lens and it still does the job. Cheapo tripod from Aldi/Lidle and a long cable bulb release let's me enjoy the show and click the bulb in my pocket or sit in the car if it's really cold.

Just a few pics from early this morning at West Sands, St. Andrews First one was 100iso eq @ f1.8 and 10 sec exposure, strong moonlight about midnight with the faintest of hint of an aurora. The rest were all taken with a 4 sec exposure, show got going about 1.00am and I left sometime after 3.00am

Yep! Was just a few clear patches in the cloud so headed off to St. Andrews. Good move, had fairly clear sky most of the night. 100 or so pics later I got back home about 4am, frozen and knacked! Not long up and need to take dog out so haven't downloaded pics yet. Will post some later. Still looking good for tonight but as always need the weather gods to smile on us.

7pm. and Bz nicely tipping south at approx -10° Auroral oval showing a red indicator, 90% chance, over Russia atm so as skys darken here hopefully it will swing round to favour the British Isles. Weather has been abysmal all day here and it's still cloudy but looking a bit brighter. Will assess situation after dark and decide if it's worth a trip.

So what happened last night? Stayed up untill midnight and saw the first M class CME from the 5th. arrive. Solarham have virtually real time graphs and the kick is quite pbvious. Loooking at the plots, the solar wind speed wasn't too bad but Bz magnetic orientation was barely South at any time. All in all, so far not much of an event. About Kp4 max and we really need KP 6 or above. Have seen one really nice pic on FB of a bright red aurora over Ben Nevis from last night but here on the East it was persistent low cloud that not even the almost full moon could penetrate. So I went to bed! Today is another day though but the weather is really keech with drizzle interspersed with heavy showers. Hopefully it will improve later.

Nothing has kicked of yet (10.00pm) and Kirkcaldy is clouded out. Probably the best bet is to be ready for a quick run to either Crail or St. Andrews. Aurora are forecast for tonight and tomorrow with the big one sometime over the weekend. Trick is to find a rain/cloud shadow with clear skies. May have to travel to Peterhead/Gardenstown direction if it stays SW, otherwise just sit tight and hope!

Rare enough, especially during sunspot minimum. Last big one I saw was the Halloween aurora 2003 when reports came in from Florida and Texas. We were not that far past the closest approach of Mars in the August and as well as very strong lights to the North, Mars was South of overhead and the sky was bathed in a red glow. I think that was also when a good part of the Canadian power grid was knocked out. So yep, pretty rare.

It looks as if the earlier X2 flare will be caught up by the later X9 flare. There are a lot of variables, mag flux, speed and mag orientation but if the gods look kindly we could even be seen pics of aurora from Spain. All very speculative but fingers crossed. I would hope Yorkshire and the Black Country to see something at least. We should know more within the next day.

Lol @ Yarmy Yep clear skies are a bit of a must. Timing will be dependent on the solar wind speed. SpaceWeather, Solarham etc will be watching closely as this could have implications for power grids and satellites. I'm also sure us aurora freaks will also be keeping everyone updated. Edit: early indications suggest 48 hours +- 8 hours but this is very tentative atm.

Above, Solarham report the flare as X9.3 and confirm a bright CME. Whoopdedo!

Any help for clear skies in Scotland tonight and tomorrow night. Kp7 aurora forecast and would hate to miss it. Probably on the North East, maybe even manage to get as far as The Black Isle.

Sunspot AR2673 unleashed an X9 solar flair on the 6th. Per SpaceWeather Not yet known if there is an associated CME but if so and Earth directed this will be a doozy! Possibly arorae as far south as Paris. Stand by your beds, this could be the big one!