UKC

Massively strong aurora forecast for tonight. Might be worth looking out of the window if it's clear and you're in Scotland. Anyone in Iceland is going to be in for an awesome night.

In reply to myth:

Hoping to find somewhere dark enough tonight in Fife. looks like there might be clear spells.

In reply to myth:

Details here: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Europe/2014/01/09

In reply to myth:

nothing showing for lancs

http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/

In reply to CurlyStevo:

That's measurements for last night and now, isn't it?

There does seem to be expectation of good auroras tonight:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/index.html

There's already some fairly significant activity happening, albeit not nere:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html

In reply to skog:
Looking at your link.... Do you know why quite often (/ normally ?) the aurora seems to be offset so the US gets effects a lot further south than we do?

In reply to CurlyStevo:

I don't know if this is the answer to your question, but on the TV prog last night, they said the aurora circle is actually an oval that extends down into the night side of the earth (ie. away from the sun). Which, if that is correct, would mean that, about now, it extends down into the USA as it is still their nighttime.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

I think it tends to be more intense and reach further South during the night time, so it'll look that way during the day here, but the opposite 12 hours later. The read arrow on the chart is the noon meridian, and tends to be where the activity is weakest.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

I thought it was because the "circle" is centred on the North Magnetic Pole, which is currently around 86N 147W, rather than the North Geographic Pole.

In reply to Mark Bull:

That will be the case as it's a magnetic phenomenon but the oval extending into nighttime side of the earth seems correct, so maybe a combo of the two?

In reply to skog:

Ok i read that and kind of understood.........however can anyone tell me is there an optimum UK time? I need to know so i can decide what to tell the kids.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Around midnight local time is generally best, but of course it also depends what's actually arriving at Earth at that point.

In reply to skog:

Ta

In reply to myth:

A white glow looking north from Broadford in Skye at 1.00am. Not great though.

In reply to Mark Bull:


That makes sense

In reply to myth:

This website looks great, minute by minute forecasts.

http://www.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm

It says a Kp of between 5 and 7 then northern england has a chance (higher the better).

In reply to myth:

Strange. Since posting this morning the Iceland aurora forecast has gone down from 7 (strong) to 0 (quiet) for tonight.

In reply to myth:

Gone to 1 (quiet) now.

http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/

In reply to ablackett:

Starting to get active...

http://www.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm

In reply to ablackett:

Not here it's not... the sky seemed to have a certain brightness but that was probably due to the glow from the moon reflecting off wispy clouds. I was looking out over the Moray Firth from around Lossiemouth area, I'm now off to bed!

In reply to ablackett:

d'Oh. Now that I've actually clicked on your link I see that it says

"Latest Forecast = in 45 minutes, the Aurora will be Quiet"

That'll be correct then...

In reply to myth:

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/beautiful-northern-lights-...

Can't help being mildly suspicious of this....don't know what others think!

In reply to JamButty:

I cannot place that bright star or recognise any star groups easily.
I think we are looking North then the main brightness is coming from the East, I'm not sure the Moon would be Eastern at night on Thursday, it was less than first quarter.
Yes....curious.

In reply to JamButty:

I smell bs

In reply to JamButty:

If you look at these pics...

http://news.sky.com/story/1193448/northern-lights-pictured-shining-on-uk

it becomes clear that the bright star is Jupiter in the constellation of Gemini. So I'm happy about the stars now, but not sure about those auroral 'features'.
Did any of our Welsh correspondents witness these ? Surely with the smart phone ubiquity, somebody on UKC would have had a snap of them.

In reply to JamButty:

They have been seen a number of times in North Wales, so not impossible

In reply to Cardi:

The photographer said it was extremely weak to the naked eye, and only came out in the long exposures.

I think the shapes look like long exposures of clouds that have been coloured by something. Could have been by NLs, or photoshop.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

Definitively not.
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Northern-lights-fail-south-aurora-boreal...

In reply to Dan Arkle:

The story is interesting as well... she just happened to be up there by chance and just happened to be trying a long exposure which she had "never tried before" - sounds like nonsense to me!

In reply to Milesy:

It's not impossible, but I'm inclined to agree. Getting the exposure just right for aurora is tricky. If you were doing exposures suitable for an LE star shot the aurora itself would be over exposed unless it was v faint.