Lightsabers at Midnight

After the vivid spectacle in the sky on Friday night, aurora fever seems to have gripped the UK. There were a lot of predictions around that Saturday night would have a similar display... I wasn't entirely convinced, as a coronal mass ejection large enough to push the aurora this far south is pretty rare and there's no guarantee that further solar storms coming up will repeat this. But, it was an excuse for an adventure anyway so a bunch of us piled into my car and we headed to Reculver on the northern coast of Kent. This would have given a great viewpoint, with unobstructed skies and the ruined towers for foreground interest.

It seemed like half of Kent had the same idea, and there was actually a traffic jam on the tiny lane to the car park (a road that is normally hardly used). We were lucky enough to find a sneaky place to park, then walked a little way up to the ruins to be greeted by an amazing festival atmosphere. People were gathered around barbecues and small fires, chatting and enjoying the occasion. Rows of tripods lined the hilltop overlooking the sea as optimistic photographers waited for the aurora to appear.

No such luck – as I'd suspected, the gusts of solar plasma had settled and there were no astronomical treats in the offing. Luckily Gubs & Dash had brought their lightsabers along for the occasion. We set up a duel with the Reculver Towers in the background and the photography turned out well so it's another early morning blip for today.