My first aurora! After a geomagnetic storm had been raging all day, night finally fell and I waited to see something of the show myself. As my northern horizon is pretty well blocked and what's left is brightly illuminated by my town's castle, I had trouble seeing if anything was happening yet. At one point, however, I was sure the aurora had started, and sure enough, just a minute later, that part of the sky was glowing bright neon red - an almost intimidating sight!
After sighting the aurora at home, I quickly ran to the municipal park which I had previously discovered as a nice site with a free, dark northern horizon. Unfortunately, the bright, round globe lamps were still burning, only being shut off after midnight. However, I managed to continue shooting and caught some more of the northern lights, some visible to the naked eye and others not. Soon after I arrived, the lights died down and were almost gone. I had to take a break from photographing them....
After some time (I was already freezing as the day had been quite warm but the temperatures had dropped quite a bit), a little pillar of light was faintly visible to the naked eye. Suspecting a revival of auroral activity, I took a photo and sure enough, it was a little beam of northern lights. Not surprisingly, a bit more of the northern sky was slightly reddish, a phenomenon that was not visible to the naked eye.
As there was no sign of further auroral displays after the last one, I went home and checked the geomagnetic values on the Internet. There was still some activity, but not as strong as before. I waited, put on some warmer clothes, then checked the Internet again and saw that the activity was getting stronger again.
After arriving in the park again, I still could not see anything, and I was getting pretty tired, so I laid down on a bench. Suddenly, I noticed a suspicious glow in the northwest, nowhere near where the previous displays were seen, and saw the broad curtain of light visible in the photo above. The bright, white light behind the tree on the left is the Moon, which had still not set. The globe lamps had been turned off by this time, and it was quite dark in the park.
The clouds were already pulling in as the last display started up shortly after local midnight (which is actually 1:00 due to Daylight Saving Time), the time at which aurorae are usually and most intensively seen. A broad curtain shone in the north this time, surrounded by the clouds illuminated from below.
The glow also disappeared soon, and the clouds were fast in replacing it. Reports from people who had clear skies longer than I did tell of no further activity, so it was just as good for me to leave at this time. It was a very nice night with an interesting and exciting display of one of the most awe-inspiring sights of nature. It was not as strong as auroral displays are further north, and could only be seen sporadically, but nevertheless, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it!
