A strong geomagnetic storm occurred this evening, due to enhanced solar winds from a coronal hole. Some activity kicked off in Iceland even before it was fully dark, and that turned out to be the strongest display of the night (at least for the period I watched, until midnight) with dancing curtains and intense greens to the eye. Unfortunately we were driving at the time, and while I had excellent naked eye views of the aurora display overhead then there was nowhere on the road to pull over and take photographs because of so many other people also parked up to watch the lights! So the images below are from a bit later in the evening and after the strongest part of the display had mostly moved southwards from Iceland. Over this period the aurora covered much of the sky but at much lower intensity and without too much movement. We even had a nice band of aurora across the southern sky, instead of in the north like usual.
Image 1. 20:37 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 6.3 sec. Bright aurora left over from the big display that happened at around 20:00.
Image 2. 20:50 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 10 sec. Some brief tall rays through a cloud gap to the north-east.
Image 3. 20:57 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 10 sec. Looking south-west, with weak aurora across much of the sky and a band forming to the south.
Image 4. 21:00 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 8.9 sec. Looking west with the sky in all directions covered with diffuse green and some rays.
Image 5. 21:06 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 11 sec. Band of aurora overhead and off to the south-west.
Image 6. 21:18 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 14 sec.
Image 7. 21:38 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 14 sec. The most notable band of aurora is located to the south, with a weaker covering overhead and little to the north.
Image 8. 22:26 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 11 sec. Brief appearance of some tall rays to the north-east.
