Chance of Irish Aurora Tonight (10thMar)

Interplanetary Magnetic Field is heavily tilted southwards and the aurora was fairly active today, if you have clear skies watch out for norternlights to night. This site is good for forecasts:

www.softservenews.com/aurora.htm

Unfortunately, we are completely clouded out here in Donegal. Hopefully there is clear skies somewhere on the island if it does kick off.

All the best,

Brendan,
www.DonegalSkies.com

Thanks Brendan but looks like the kp line isnt coming low enough 4 down here. btw briliant RRA site!!

Dave

A friend of mine has viewed them from the north coast of Donegal already tonight. I am only getting the chance to head up there now. Hoping it keeps up and there is a few gaps in the clouds.

Hi thanks Brenden for the text, great seeing my first Aurora in six years, probably the first captured outside Ulster in that time also, On the way home from work I noticed on SW the KP was at level 4 and the BZ was very far south (If the IMF points south -- a condition scientists call "southward Bz" then the IMF can partially cancel Earth's magnetic field at the point of contact and opens a door through which energy from the solar wind can reach Earth's atmosphere)Here was a view of the auroral oval over Europe late last night

The KP then dropped to 2 and later around 1am re-energized to storm level 5, was at this time that I took these photos, there was a strong wind blowing and these were 30 sec wind shook exposures at ISO 1600, could just make out the green glow with the naked eye.

I was very low on petrol so went to the first dark place I could find before the clouds rolled in about 10 minutes later, photos taken in Charlestown, Co Mayo







Ronan Newman

Thanks Dave and excellent photo Ronan, I enjoyed getting the chance to talk about astro stuff with people even if it only by text.

I had a very busy evening with work and the like so I didn’t get a chance to head to a dark site on till almost midnight. My camera is still out of action (like it was for my first display on 1st of March 2011) so I had to get a loan of one. The weather was terrible all evening but there were only a few, very brief clear spells all evening so I headed up to Hornhead, on the north coast of Donegal hoping for the best. When I arrived at the site at 00:30, no sooner had I the camera on the tripod when an almightyfull hail shower started. Cue the mad dash for the car!! Resulting in me breaking my shutter release cable, not a problem I had a spare in the car….. Only I had no batteries for it!! Ok, so now I am limited to 30sec exposures. The shower passes and I head back out to the gale force winds only to see the only patch of sky with cloud was the north, typical!! I struggle in the wind for the next while and the cloud continued to linger to the north. I eventually packed it in after capturing this fairly poor image but working in the gale force wind, on the top of a cliff on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean was almost impossible! But Still my first, albeit poor aurora image!

Donegal Aurora by Donegal Skies , on Flickr

Details:
Time & Date: 01:30 11 March 2011
Camera: Canon 1000D & 18-55mm kit lens
Settings: 30sec, ISO 1600, FL:18mm F:3.5

Thanks for looking,
Brendan,

nice shots lads, I wonder though has our weather window closed up for the next few days.