October the 14th.

In Orkney, this year especially, it seems like every night is an Aurora night. An app pinging regularly with the message – “visible in the far North of Scotland”.

What the app should also add of course, is “subject to the moon and the weather”. A blanket of cloud is an obvious no-no, but so is the moon, at the moment 86% full, more than bright enough to wash out all but the strongest displays.

As mentioned in previous posts, in Orkney the aurora is given the title the ‘mirrie dancers’. When we first moved here, a late night phone call asked if we would like to see the “dancers”, confusion briefly reigned and 2+2 was made into 5, was it an upcoming show at the community hall? Eventually the penny dropped and we went down onto the shore, with the lady who had been kind enough to ring, and watched our first ever light show. 

The name is appropriate, on those rare nights like that first night eleven years ago, the greens and reds literally do fill the sky and dance before your eyes. More often than not though, at first glance, there’s just a faint glow to the North. The rest of the aurora remaining invisible until you get your eye in. With a weak aurora, even when you do get your eye in, the streaks of colour, higher up in the skies, appear as shades of grey and white. Only when you check the screen on the back of the camera, do you see the colours, invisible to the eye but picked up by a much more sensitive to darkness, digital sensor.

Last Thursday promised a spectacular show. To be seen across the UK. A rival for the one eleven years ago. In Orkney we drew a short straw, thick cloud and 40mph winds. The met office though predicted a slight silver lining, the clouds would thin at around 4am on Friday morning, the alarm was set for 3. They timed the forecast to perfection, the clouds thinning on cue, pinprick stars becoming visible.

There are rare moments when the dancers can be seen to every horizon. Friday morning brought one of them. Although the clouds never quite cleared, blurring in camera as they rushed across the sky, they thinned enough to make a 3am start worthwhile. I stayed close to home, dodging the winds behind shelter belt and garden dykes, dashing back indoors when a heavy shower came scudding in.

The photographs below show views to all four compass points. The highlight of the night was an auroral corona, high above the house to the West.