Space weather brings Northern Lights to UK

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Been reading about this week’s CME and having just read this I am so tempted to do a last minute road-trip up North later!

Been checking out the best places with dark skies and Windermere seems a fairly good bet. There are clear skies forecast until around 1am. I’m seriously contemplating heading up there!

www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk...

I seriously can not wait too see all the pretty pictures people get! You should totally do it, it would be amazing! If they were highly visible anywhere near me i would go for a trip for the best view too! And please if you go take lots and lots of photos!

a reply to: Shana91aus

I've wanted to see them for so long! Seems like a fairly good bet that I'll get a chance tonight and if I get lucky rest assured I will get as many pics as I can

originally posted by: paradisepurple
a reply to: Shana91aus

I've wanted to see them for so long! Seems like a fairly good bet that I'll get a chance tonight and if I get lucky rest assured I will get as many pics as I can

Make sure you read up on the best way to set up your shots.

a reply to: Snarl

Thanks, will do, I hadn't thought of that. My camera is on the blink there's a big fuzzy spot in the middle of the lens so I'm going to borrow my mams, hopefully it does the job!

I'm absolutely gutted .. As off Monday next week I'll be deep in the cairngorm mountains in Scotland for 3 days which would of been perfect .. Damn you sun!! Damn you

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

Nooooo! Gutted for you.. Never mind hopefully there'll be lots of pics, our road trip is ON! Just wish I had more time to research it but hey nothing ventured, nothing gained! Wish me luck

a reply to: paradisepurple I suppose I can't complain anyway in swapping the concrete jungle of South Essex for the beauty of the Scottish highlands for a week. Either way wish I could see the lights

Good luck on your trip ! Happy hunting

Edit: just see your location .. I have relatives in South Wales ... Rhonda valley.

a reply to: Shana91aus

Hey Shana, I have no pretty pictures for you I’m afraid! We saw absolutely nothing, nada, niente.... Apart from one shooting star. Oh and a badger

It was such a hellish long drive up to Cumbria, got home at 6 this morning absolutely shattered! But if we had seen them it would have been so worth it so in a way I’m still glad we took the time to go.. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that!

Just been having a search and can’t see that anyone else has reported seeing them either… ? The moon was extremely bright so don’t know if that made any difference...

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

Our road-trip was unsuccessful unfortunately

I'm sure we must have discussed your relatives before on another thread, I clearly recall you mentioning you have relatives there! Didn't you drive to the Brecon Beacons from there visiting once? It really is a beautiful part of South Wales!

Ah yes my apologies I'm no good with names and even worse when mainly lurk on there's forums. Yes that's correct I went to Brecon. Looking forward to getting to Scotland on Monday 4 days out in the sticks

It's a shame your trip didn't turn out too well maybe we will all get a chance to see the lights one day

a reply to: paradisepurple

Head over to Kielder forest, you don't get any darker in the UK.

There are dark spots here in Cumbria, including Windermere, but unless you are going to climb a fell, your view of the horizon is going to be obstructed all around....plus, that awful orange haze from street lights never truly goes away.

Oh, and did I mention the clouds? Yeah, good luck getting clear skies round here when there is something worth watching in the skies, I was out overlooking the Solway for 6 hours last night hoping for a break in them to see/photograph the aurora...it never came, still bloody cloudy now!

originally posted by: woogleuk did I mention the clouds? Yeah, good luck getting clear skies round here

i feel your pain

a reply to: RoScoLaz4

Where I live is truly remarkable, a 5 minute walk to the slag banks and I can gaze out over the Solway firth. I can see Scotland, England, Ireland and the Isle of man...with the naked eye. (and turn around to see the lake district fells, like Scafell pike (extinct super volcano) etc).

When skies are clear and you can see the aurora, it is just a fascinating place to be.

a reply to: woogleuk

sounds like an awesome place

a reply to: woogleuk

I’d never been to the Lake District before so didn’t know what to expect, I assumed it was going to be rugged and wild like the Brecon Beacons but I was surprised how built up it was, one little village after another. Doing an impromptu road trip without having the time to look into where to go sucked a bit…

But eventually we found a unlit car park somewhere between Grasmere and Keswick. It seemed perfect, it was set back from the road so there wasn’t any interruption from the headlights of passing cars and there was a great view of the sky all round, broken only by a few trees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I thought ‘this is perfect, bring on those auroras!’ The moon wasn’t visible at first but slowly it rose and was so bright it was like daylight! I could have cried…

Apparently they were seen off the coast of Scotland and in Northern Ireland

www.bbc.co.uk...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

a reply to: paradisepurple

There was a break in the clouds at around 1am to the south, that may have looked north to you from where you were.

But to my entire north, right to the horizon was clouds....even the moon, which was south easterly? was rarely out from behind them.

Sounds like you came up the A591 from south Lakeland, there are quite numerous little villages scattered around there, all quaint little stone cottages and what not.

By the sounds of it, you've probably found one of the many car parks along Thirlmere, it can get quite dark out that way, and some sections are quite high up above sea level, perfect for viewing.

a reply to: woogleuk

We were looking to the North West and couldn’t see one cloud. We were there from 10:30 to about 1:45.. I almost wished for a bit of cloud just to cover the pesky bright moon! Yeah it was rising above the hill to the East behind the car park. On our way out of the Lake District the high hills obscured the moon a couple of times so we pulled over but could still see nothing but stars. So frustrating!

We saw a couple of people pulled over on the M6 looking up at the sky, I wanted to shout out ‘don’t bloody bother’