[Dave Hancox]

A Solar storm resulted in A display of the Northern Lights over Ayrshire SW Scotland near Dalmellington. After an alert from Tony Sales grabbed my bag, flask of tea and set off to rainbow gate on the Straiton Road as my usual haunt is a wash out with opencast lighting. I wasn't let down and its actually a better site. I went out the back of 11pm, wrapped up well and hoped no early midges were about. When I arrived the aurora was a visible green band across the sky no pillars or other colours. Didn't have to wait long and pillars became visible and the aurora continued to climb. I managed to catch Venus above in and below the aurora, Some clouds enhanced the display. Dew formation was a minor problem but not to bad. The decreasing temperature wasn't pleasant down to -2C on the car gauge how ever i was mesmerized by the sights of bright pillars growing quickly brightening then fading shooting up all over the place, at times it faded and I thought that was it but it returned brighter and better with faint red colours appearing in the pillars and sky. about 1:15am a shimmering effect started pulsing green light appearing in patchy waves over the sky. I hadn't seen this before and was held in awe, sometimes forgetting to release the remote shutter and over exposing shots lol something to do with the magnetic pole moving brings this on I believe (Need to check this out) Then more pillars bright and colorful before it quickly faded on the horizon at about 2am. I was slightly glad when it had stopped as I was frozen but would have followed it to the end if it continued. The flask never got touched but was quickly consumed when i got home and began to thaw out. An incredible sight one everyone should see at sometime.
Photo's taken on my K200D Pentax bulb setting with cable remote and tripod F3.5 18mm focal length bit higher on a few closer shots, ISO varied mainly between 800/1600 and a few at 400, exposure times mainly 10secs 1600iso ,15-20sec 800iso. Prefeere the 10 sec exposures because this prevents the wash out effect of pillars moving. Photos taken in Raw format converted to JPEG with some lighting adjustments the processed with Neat Image as due to the hi ISO used and having the camera noise reduction system turned off due to processing delay between shot it cause's Neat Images carries this out post shot with a handy profile download you get for your camera.
A selection of photos below, The full sequence of the storm can be seen on Flickr http://www.flickr.co...57629888944663/

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[Tony Sales]

brilliant photos again Dave

[ChaserUK]

very nice indeed!

[Bazmundo]

Utterly stunning, well done mate!! No's 6, 13 & 14 of the pillars are jaw-dropping. Love the account too, the same as I would've done (if I hadn't had 8 octas of dirty yellow).

[Jason Smith]

Stunning UK Aurora shots Dave. Wonder how far South these were spotted?

[John Mason]

Wow, what a set. You must be mighty pleased with the haul!

Cheers - John

[Dave Hancox]

Thanks for the comments, It was a great night can't wait for more. The pulsating form of aurora last night was magical and weird, I have had a look to find out what I can, Good Luck
Video here time lapse of pulsating Aurora it says can last 1-30secs the one's I saw last night lasted about a second http://vimeo.com/28383882

Link here into the investigation of Pulsating , Something to do with the effects of the Van Allan Radiation Belt . http://www.eos.unh.e...12/rocket.shtml

Van Allens Radiation Belt http://imagine.gsfc....rs/970228a.html

Jeez it get complicated, should have stuck in at school. From what I can gather from above the Pulsating Aurora is affected by the Van Allen radiation belt which is a belt of radiation held in orbit by the Earths magnetic pull. Classic Aurora is not affected by this. They say it normally occurs after an Aurora Display and most observers miss it. Last night it happened during a fainter part of the display but the brighter pillars came up after this. Scratches head and goes for a line down.

[Sam Jowett]

Superb set Dave... very jealous!

[OCEANSTORM]

Wow! Fantastic Dave!! Would love to see something like that

[Ed.]

There are not enough superlatives! to describe those Dave, but i'll stick to just one - outstanding!!..images and something which i have not yet had the pleasure to view to such an extent.I am pretty darn sure you're well happy with those Dave

[Flatlander]

Best ones this year - great stuff. Well worth getting cold!

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 24 April 2012 - 22:57

[Iain Mac]

Fantastic images Dave. Well done.
I was early shift (typical!), so was tucked up in bed at that time and missed it.

Iain.

[Col Cooper]

Stunning!

man i'm jealous!