When looking at moving to Scotland back in 2007 I will admit that the hills and mountains were not my first concern; it was the promise of dark skies and the chance to properly see a display of Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) that really excited me. In both October and November 2004 I saw the Northern Lights from Durham in the North East of England. For being stuck in the middle of an (albeit small) city with the orange skydome of Newcastle to the north, we got some impressive views. There were sheets of green and red that danced and flickered, and a bright green arc stretching low across the horizon. I only had a very small digital camera at that time, but I did get a few photos which must be stored on some random external hard drive somewhere. In the meantime, this view of Orion shows the quality of the night sky out in Aberdeenshire.
Storms that push the auroral oval sufficiently far south are quite rare and so it was with great excitement that I moved the few degrees north to darker skies of Aberdeenshire where I hoped to be able to repeat the viewings but on a much more dramatic scale. Of course since then we have been stuck in the gloom of a long and particularly low solar minimum and only now are activity levels on the sun really picking up again.
Whilst countries further north enjoy views of the Aurora Borealis throughout winter, here in Scotland it is a more temperamental affair. Not only does the solar wind have to be strong enough to push the auroral oval sufficiently far south (usually a Kp value of 5 or more), but you also need dark and cloud-free skies. Getting all three conditions together on the same night can be tricky and it is only when the sun is particularly active (around solar maximum) that we really get a good chance.
That being said I’m always on the lookout for potential aurora viewing opportunities and on 19th January 2012 satellites monitoring the sun detected a number of events, culminating in a Coronal Mass Ejection, which hurled a barrage of solar particles out into interplanetary space. Initial predictions were for the storm to hit Earth on the night of the 21st January 2012 which was a Saturday, with a new Moon and no clouds forecast. All three conditions for aurora viewing? Check!
A couple of flasks of tea were made, cameras were charged and packed and we journeyed west into Aberdeenshire to a site just off the main road near Midmar kirk. The wind was ferocious, lashing the trees and rocking the car quite substantially. We got out and although there was a brightness to the northern sky there wasn’t any structure or colour to be seen. Low clouds carried through by the wind also didn’t help with the northern horizon partially obscured for much of the time we were there. After waiting about half an hour (mainly in the car to avoid the chilling effects of the wind) we called it a night and came home. On inspecting the photos it was clear some faint Aurora had been there (see below), unfortunately it hadn’t been particularly apparent to the naked eye.
The next morning it was clear from the charts (see below) that the storm’s arrival had been later than predicted. Around 8am the dials were climbing into the red and it was clear something was happening. Of course it was broad daylight so no chance of a view. Would there be residual activity that evening though?
All Sunday evening I sat with half an eye on the space weather sites, and another on Twitter (both #aurora and #aurorawatch were useful search terms). Gradually activity on both picked up with people reporting views of aurora along the Moray Firth, in Shetland and even above Edinburgh. At 8:30pm I eventually decided to head out, this time without the hot tea.
By 9pm I was parked up again outside Midmar kirk and almost bounced out of the car as a green arc had been clearly visible in the northern sky since leaving Aberdeen. The sky was stunning. Inky blackness peppered with stars everywhere except the north where a bright band of ghostly green light stretched from beyond the hills in the west around to where it was lost in the glow from Aberdeen to the east.
As my eyes adjusted to the low light levels I could see the aurora pulsing gently as it intensified and faded over the course of a few seconds. Initially it was brighter towards the west but as my time there went on it changed and was later much brighter in the central region.
I had the camera out and was taking exposures for most of the time I was there. I started off at ISO800, taking 20 second exposures, but later increased the sensitivity to ISO1600 which produced more vivid colours and more extensive aurora, particularly into the fainter red and purple areas of the display.
Around 10pm, and conscious that it was a school night I reluctantly packed up and headed back. Clouds had been moving in from the west so it seemed like a good time to leave. The next day though it was clear that the display had been much more intense in the hours after midnight and I think this photo from Ryan Stevenson illustrates how much better the show got.
I’m hopeful that this marks the beginning of a good stretch of solar activity with increased opportunities to see and photograph aurorae. I need to do some more research into finding good sites with off road parking and a good northern horizon. Although the spot at Midmar is fine, the forest seen in the pictures does somewhat obscure lower displays.
As a postscript it appears that another CME was released from the sun on Sunday/Monday and is currently interacting with the atmosphere giving rise to aurora tonight (24th January 2012). Unfortunately it is currently very cloudy in Aberdeen.
Joe Dorward is passionate about that corner of the Cairngorm Mountains, largely west and north of the village of 
