PSA: aurora on red alert

Really –  if a negative. Unless the Grauniadh has changed the photo, the one I saw looked like a cloud against a sunset/rise sky.

I recall comet Hale Bopp in the late 90s was easily visible, very much the classic shape and bright in the sky but aiui it’s pretty unusual for a comet to be like that. For instance Halley was much heralded in the mid 80s but wasn’t much to look at.

There was one with a spectacular tail visible with the naked eye in the 90’s – comet Hyakutake 1996??

Comet over Bennachie tonight.. another treat in the night sky. It’s pretty faint but visible with the naked eye.

Phone camera picks it out nicely.

Really –  if a negative. Unless the Grauniadh has changed the photo, the one I saw looked like a cloud against a sunset/rise sky.

Seriously?

And yet the Guardian, BBC, and photos here,  all show a comet looking exactly „like that“.  As indeed is my recollection of Hale-Bopp from the 1990s. So while <i>some</i> comets don’t „look like that“, clearly some do.

Really lovely green aurora north of Inverness tonight, right across the horizon. Intense colour in big swirls

Basically nothing on the alert either., only went out for a listen to the cows and got a glimpse of something I thought was nothing, then it all kicked off!

Not a chance rest of UK with this big blanket of cloud that hasn’t moved for over a week.

Yeah I was really surprised, it’s super clear and really warm out tonight. We had 16c in the garden and it only dropped a little. Stars are crystal clear

Lights are all green but over a long horizon in big patches

Well, I’ve got me a tripod that has a smart phone holder, and downloaded the Samsung Raw photo app so I can do astro photos… and the weather has been shoot since. My fault folks !