Last night’s aurorae

[David Strange]

Despite the clouds last night’s aurorae were picked up by the NLO auroracam. The first signal we had was via our magnetometer but also by the radar meteor beacon from Sherwood observatory which was showing typical strong interference as we were hosting a sixth form school party. Sadly the storm started a few moments after they all left!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/khy2h06acyoq06hrye6hq/latest_20260120.mp4?rlkey=unmub5chv9roipqp0kgv2uc13&dl=0

David

[Richard Miles]

Thanks for posting this David.

The image quality of the video is excellent.
It was a good way of avoiding having to sit up all night to watch the night sky.

Richard

[Duncan Hale-Sutton]

The aurora was very spectacular last night and there were some aspects that I hadn’t seen before. The most notable was right at the start when in fact I hadn’t been aware that an aurora was happening. I poked my head out to look at the sky about 21:15 UT to see if it was clear when I noticed that there was some puffy light cloud that was being lit up as if by a search light. It was so bright that I was convinced I was seeing something like the forward landing lights of an aircraft or perhaps something weird like a rocket fuel dump. Or, I thought, it might be the moon shining through a gap in the clouds. It gave me goosebumps because I just couldn’t explain it. The colour was sort of white to my eyes. It faded slowly over a minute or so and then grew brighter again a bit further south. It wasn’t until I went inside and saw the aurora alert that I reasoned what I saw was part of a very bright aurora.

[Alex Pratt]

It’s maddening listening to my phone pinging ‘red alerts’ for the past two days and seeing NOAA’s red oval sweeping down the UK – whilst being tormented by incessant clouds and rain… 🙁

Alex.

[Mr Giovanni Di Giovanni]

Unfortunately, auroras do not appear in Italy, or at least they are very rare; I have never seen one myself.
David, thank you for the video you shared and for mentioning the detected magnetic signal. Regarding this, I would like to ask for some additional information: Have you also observed a Solar Flare Effect (SFE)? If possible, could you please share a graph showing how one component of the geomagnetic field (e.g., the total field component) evolved over the course of a few days, starting shortly before the SFE? A graph like that would be very interesting, as it would allow us to distinguish between the effect (SFE) of the increased solar X-ray and UV emission and the effect (auroras) caused by the particle radiation.
Thank you very much
Giovanni

P.S. Sorry if my English is not perfect, I’m using a translator.

[David Strange]

Hi Giovanni,
I have passed your enquiry on to others more knowledgeable than me on this matter! In the meantime here are links to the Norman Lockyer Observatory real time magnetometer readings and our solar flare detector (VLF or SID detection). I do not believe we monitor UV emission.

https://normanlockyer.com/the-observatory/lockyer-technology-centre/magnetometer/

https://normanlockyer.com/the-observatory/lockyer-technology-centre/solar-flare-detection/

Best wishes
David

David Strange
Chairman
Norman Lockyer Observatory

[Tim Haymes]

Similar weather conditions here in Oxfordshire. Metcheck suggested a break in the cloud at 0400 this morning. There was, and i took some wide angle shots. There was a very faint crimson glow low down to the North. Clearly most of the activity had subsided despite the phone pings. AW Magnetometer at 315 nT. Its now raining again.

Tim

[Robin Leadbeater]

Alex Pratt wrote:

It’s maddening listening to my phone pinging ‘red alerts’ for the past two days

What alert service are people using ? I have traditionally used Lancaster Uni’s Aurorawatch app but it never seems to send alerts these days

Thanks
Robin

[Alex Pratt]

Hi Robin,

As well as receiving ‘phone calls and texts from fellow enthusiasts, and checking the NOAA website, I have the Aurora Watch UK app on my phone – which I guess is the one you mention?

I wonder if the service was overloaded this week?

Also check the app Settings:

Notification permissions turned on
Enable Alert Notifications
Choose Alert Threshold

etc

Alex.

[Robin Leadbeater]

Hi Alex,

Yes all conditions set up ok, though I’ve just discovered from the Lancaster Uni Aurora Watch website there are two (both third party) Android apps using the Lancaster data, titled AuroraWatch UK and Aurora Watch UK. I was using the former which has the same (green wavy) logo that Lancaster use on their website but I see on the internet page for that app they acknowledge that there is a problem with a google play limit on how many free alerts they can send out which I guess they quickly exceed these days with the increased interest. I have now downloaded the app with the space in the title (which has a green spiral logo) so hopefully perhaps that is more reliable. Is that the one you have ?

Cheers
Robin

[Alex Pratt]

Hi Robin,

Ah, perhaps mine is “The People’s Aurora Watch of Judea” 🙂

Just checked – my app is “Aurora Watch Uk version 2,00” with the green spiral logo.

Cheers,

Alex.

[Tim Haymes]

Hi Robin,
For into, the shortcut on my phone says AuroraWatch UK (no space between Aurora and Watch), but when the App is open, the top line says Aurora Watch UK (with space). Its ver 2.01 (green spiral). I dont have any problem with it on this old phone.
Tim

[Robin Leadbeater]

Thanks chaps,

I now have both apps running and the original green wavy app did not alert whereas the newly installed green spiral one briefly amber alerted last night so I will swap to that one.

Cheers
Robin

[Nick Quinn]

The Glendale App https://aurora-alerts.uk/ is excellent; I highly recommend it.

[Author]

Posts