Aurora Hunting – Part 1

Work had been horribly busy, so I'd not been able to get out for a blip in the day. I'd been about to set up a still-life shot of some sort, when a friend texted me a picture of a vivid purple & green sky with the message 'are u out taking pics?'...

Well I wasn't out taking pics at all – in fact I'd completely forgotten about the solar storm. So many astronomical events announced over the years had ended up being a bit underwhelming, I'd not paid too much attention this time. This one looked to be very different.

Gubs had seen pictures online too, and came downstairs to check the sky outside. There was a lot of haze and glow from the streetlights, and we couldn't see anything in our neighbourhood – so we decided to jump in the car on the spur of the moment, heading out into the night wearing hoodies and pyjamas.

Dover is nearly as far south as you can get in the UK, so I'd really only expected to see a faint green smudge on the northern horizon. We stopped on a country lane near Coldred, with a clear view to the north, and were treated to an incredible display – it was nice to be wrong!