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One could argue that since a camera sensor is arguably the more accurate representation of what's actually happening, using a phone on long-exposure mode is the best way to view it.
The philosophical attitude doesn't bother me. I can't see microscopic items, or wavelengths outside of a tiny range, or things a long way away, but with the right instruments I can and it doesn't stop me thinking they're incredible.
The simple fact is that the bits of your eye that see colour aren't good at night. It took me 30 minutes of night adaptation before I could see the red and purple shades on Friday night.
Yes, they did, my eyes weren’t sensitive enough to see them
That's kind of the point. Your eyes (our human eyes) don't see everything, and usually it's clear that what we are being shown is not what we'd expect to see - for example video of war zones taken using night vision equipment.
it doesn’t stop me thinking they’re incredible.
Nor me (as I said above). The difficulty (if that's the right word) is that people are led to believe that something (sky filled with bright coloured visible light) happened when it did not (as shown in CountZero's link).
The simple fact is that the bits of your eye that see colour aren’t good at night.
Well, indeed. It's a design issue with our eyes, not that some eyes are defective.
Go to an area with proper dark skies, on a clear night… look up at the stars. Now, to capture what your eyes will take in will require a long exposure on a camera. It still won’t match. Same with this.
Trying to match human experience with a photo, at night, especially of the sky, is not a simple task.
The camera may not lie, but it is not the human eye.
Here’s a piece by an astrophotographer on why Aurora don’t look very good to the naked eye. Pretty much all ready covered, but useful knowledge from someone who has a clue.
In hindsight, our household should have made more effect to spot it on the intense night (Fri night?), given seeing it in Hampshire shouldn't be a frequent thing. Plus there was no sign of it on our Norway/Iceland cruise way back in August '08.
A bit like the cartoon above, I've seen it often enough that I couldn't be arsed heading out. Sort of wish I had though as it was particularly stong and it was a warm evening whereas it's often freezing and you don't want to be standing about for long.
Red alert on the aurorawatch app.
500nT, whatever that means. Don't know how that compares to last week.
Last week hit nearly 1500nT if I remember right!
Yes 1500 on Friday and then 500 on Saturday when nothing was visible down here
I'll still be checking just in case
Yes 1500 on Friday and then 500 on Saturday when nothing was visible down here
Balls. Might open the red wine and stay at home rather than trying to go out somewhere dark then.
Coronal mass ejection inbound!
Expected to arrive tonight according to the Met Office.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/space-weather
No mention on stargazerslounge
The most recent aurora information I’ve seen seems to indicate it’s centred on central North America, so sadly we’re shit out of luck this time.
No chance here, anyway, ‘cos it’s cloudy with rain forecast in the next hour or so. I’m still incredibly excited about the photos I managed to take back in May, my expectations were very low indeed, so to see the results I got once I was able to stick my phone on charge, and have access to wifi, so the photos could upload to my cloud storage and I could see them on my iPad was jaw-dropping; even the first ones I took in the village with a lot of light from the pub, there’s a green/red glow in the sky which I could see with my unassisted eyesight, which encouraged me to drive out away from the light from the houses.
Once there, I could see the shafts of different densities of light, just not the brightness of the colours, because there’s a fair amount of light from North Bristol, around the Bradley Stoke area; sadly I don’t live in a Dark Skies location so I have to rely on the sensitivity of modern technology and it’s ability to allow handheld long exposures. I didn’t think to take my little tripod, I might have been able to take longer exposures and picked up more of the starscape, like the Milky Way. *shrugs* In all the years I’ve been taking photos, I’ve never taken any like these, and unless I’m really, really lucky I don’t think I will again. These two were taken in the village, the first was among the first I took, by the duck pond, the second about a quarter of a mile along the road out of the village, and you can see how much light there was in the sky. They’re not that different to what I could see, just none of the subtle details and richness of colour.
Some red alerts with high numbers kicking off over the last 24 hours, 797nT this afternoon.
Currently on a campsite high in the north Pennines, wide 360 vistas, clear skies, fingers crossed for later.
And there's a good chance of many Perseid meteors tonight, and the next couple of nights, too. Keep an eye out to the northeast after dark
Ballater last night was impressive, just before 12. I did see a few asteroids but got bored and bitten so called it a night. Photo colours were better than naked eye but curtains of light were more visible with naked eye.
CBA to work out how to post pics.
Dang it, alerts faded saying "unlikely" around 8-9pm. Woke up to high chance alerts from 10pm+. One day I'll see it.
CBA to work out how to post pics
See the wee picture icon in the text editor controls...
I was out in East Sussex till around midnight, but was a bit disappointing as far as aurora and Persieds went . No real sign of either, compared to last night when there were loads (but no aurora)
Stars were still amazing though.
I finally saw it last night about 11pm in a campsite at the end of the Llŷn. It looks nothing like the pictures. Enormous pale sheets blocking out stars filling half the sky appearing and moving slowly. The scale of it was the most striking. I'm still buzzing today. I did get pictures but they look like everyone else's pictures and are not representative! I've wanted to see this my whole life.
Yeah the first time you see them it's a very impressive thing. Every time is different, and I reckon once you've seen them once, more come along all the time!
What molgrips said is how I felt when it all went off a couple of months back.
I’ve just landed in trondheim for a few days working. Hope it picks up again…
Just had a red alert ping and unbelievably I can see some clear sky.
Looks like it peaked magnetic activity before it was properly dark here.
Hmm...just not dark enough here and it's dropped off. Pity, its largely clear tonight
There was nothing here.
The mildest imaginable green here, the sort you're not even sure if it's real.
Got the usual green/purple haze thing going on. Just visible without camera tricks.
I'm getting a pretty greeny blue halo north of Inverness. Moving slowly.
Can see it with the naked eye, phone picks it up quite nicely
Shame it dropped down from the red alert
Northwest Sutherland and at the moment there is a dirty great cloud above us. Went out during the peak alert and the sky was bright, but much of that was the tailend of today's daylight.
Pale sky here in Carmarthenshire. Possibly wishful thinking though. It's certainly nothing special aurora-wise but sitting back and just looking at the sky is really nice to do.
It's on again. Large red streaks.
Looking out from Marple (south east fringe of That Manchester) over the Kinder plateau
Stourbridge. Can’t see with naked eye due to light pollution. 10 sec exposure on iPhone trying to hold it very still.
It’s pretty feint right now here in Beamish. I’ll pop out with the hounds in a bit and see if I can see anything from the top of the hill.
Intensity has dropped off quite a bit as of 9pm according to aurora alert.
I'm on the south coast in Sussex and just seen a post in a local facebook group stating the Northern Lights are visible. My phone camera is picking up a very faint green glow but nothing notable, perhaps when the neighbours garden stadium lights turn off and the streetlamps turn off later I'll have more luck!
Intensity has dropped off quite a bit as of 9pm according to aurora alert.
I think the website explains that the current hour often shows a drop due to how they aggregate the data, so don't assume you've missed it