During the evening of May 10th and early morning of May 11th, an Aurora (Northern Lights) was seen from Doncaster. Indeed, Doncaster was not the only city where this occurred. The Auroral-Storm was so widespread and of sufficient intensity (G5), that the entire British Isles and the northern hemisphere, was witness to this phenomenon. The 1st photo was taken at hrs 23:23hrs GMT on the 10th May and the last photo taken at 03:40hrs GMT on 11th May.
Below are my photos that I took of the Aurora. They are in sets of two. The first is the unprocessed photo and the second is of the processed photo. Maybe, I've over/under-processed the images, I just don't know.
I used a DSLR camera with ISO setting of 3200 (maybe too high?) on a tripod. Next time it will be ISO=200 and an exposure of 15seconds.
The processed photo in Photoshop has the settings:
Enhance/Levels = Input 27/0.79/142
Enhance/Brightness/Contrast =+2/+11
Adjust Colour/Colour Curves = Increase Midtones
Filter/Despeckle 5x
The white dots are stars.
Like many of the stars we see in the night sky, our own Sun is a life-giver for our planet and what is known as a variable star. Its activity waxes and wanes, peaking every 11 years in a phenomenon known as the Solar Cycle.
As it approaches this peak we see more dark sunspots appear on its face, and some of those sunspots can grow to huge sizes, becoming larger than our own planet.
Recently an ink blotch trail of sunspots ten times the size of Earth appeared on the Sun, so big it was even visible to the naked eye through solar eclipse glasses and was a stunning sight through telescopes fitted with solar filters.
As it developed, this sunspot group began firing off powerful solar flares, again and again, like a WWII battleship firing a broadside.
And when a sequence of these flares was directed towards Earth, astronomers who study space weather became very excited at the prospect of enhanced auroral activity in the night sky once the solar material reached Earth.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
The below images were directly overhead.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
Unprocessed top, processed below.
So that's just a few of the set of photos I took during the Aurora that myself and my wife enjoyed that night and following early morning. For the second Aurora we've seen from our back garden it was stunning. Photos just don't do it justice.RJC
END
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