Aurora+display+6th+-+7th+April+2000

AURORAL DISPLAY, 6th-7th APRIL 2000

Observer:- Dave Thomson

Location:- Wirral, Cheshire, England

The possibility of seeing an Auroral display had been talked about for a while but I myself had not see a display for many years. At 09:30 (UT) 10:30 (BST) on the 6th April I was going out to my observatory in the back garden to use the 30inch TRO since it seemed such a good night. I had not even got to the control room when I noticed that the sky had an unusual colour to the North. I then realised that it was an Auroral display. I had no idea if it was beginning or just ending but called Geoff Regan and Dave Owen to begin spreading the word !

The Aurora was an arc of light extending from the West to the East and had an altitude to the North of around 50 degrees. This was a clearly defined edge that faded quickly to the clear night sky. The Aurora at this time was quite faint and had little colour. Colour at this time was a very pale fluorescent green/blue.

As time passed the Aurora extended further South and the colour and activity increased. I rushed inside and got my camera. I only had 200 ASA film but would have to do. I still had on my 28mm F2.8 lens from the Leonids late last year. I loaded the camera and set up the tripod and began to shoot film. I was unsure of exposure times but kept most around 20-30 seconds. Hopefully this would be enough to capture the Aurorae without losing too much detail due to movement.

After about an hour I was looking towards Gemini and I could see that it was going RED! Very RED!! I had not seen colour this intense before. It was then apparent that colours and intensity had developed all over the sky. Reds, Greens and many other subtle colours coming into and out of view. Some very prominent waves developing and fading very rapidly. The best part of the display was for a short period near the zenith around midnight (BST) on the 6th. All lines of Aurorae appeared to emanate from a common point as in a meteor display. I managed to get a few shots of this but even a wide angle lens is not wide enough to do the display justice.

The display continued on for about another hour and a half. The edge of the Aurora halo kept advancing and retreating. The Aurora eeventually faded and I called it a night. In the end I used two rolls of 24x35mm film. This for me was a memorable display and I cannot wait for the next one...I'm hooked !! Below show more images. Note that the images have been scanned and corrected to resemble the original photographs. Above and below images have not been colour enhanced from the originals. Yes these are very close to the colours actually seen! Above image shows Ursa Major. Camera was pointing at the Zenith at this time. Early image of the evening showing the advancing display in the North. No strong colours yet. First image to show the red colour. Castor and Pollux (Gemini) can be seen top middle of the image. Again Gemini to the left of the image. Lots of colour in this image.