weatherobsuk

300+ images later and I'm finally out of battery for the M50ii. Hopefully the electric and PC still works for when I get round to sorting through them all.

I'm glad I saw the met office aurora forecast before heading out, had I kept to the NOAA prediction I'd have just gotten here 30mins ago after leaving the house at 10pm and missed out on all the action, KP is 8.3 and expected to stay at these elevated levels all through the night.

I wonder if STEVE has been seen yet, I'm keeping a eye out but nothing this far.

Funny enough I setup with a north facing view earlier on, but for now everything is almost overhead and to the south not complaining mind you. One of the best displays for the UK in 20 years.

Beautiful greens and purples now

Absolutely brilliant here under dark skies the M50ii pics are class although even the phone is picking up the display. Well worth the 2hr 30min trip to get here.

Scuba steve Im not wandering too far from the car tonight so technically 'car camping' but so far it doesn't look like much sleep will be had still twilight this far north but occasionally I keep thinking I'm seeing aurora curtains moving. Another 30-45 mins and the camera should start picking things up.

I'm all setup in the Yorkshire Dales and as soon as I switched the phone back on the Auroralerts went nuts. A slight crescent moon above and clear skies as I'm sat patiently waiting for darkness.

I couldn't remember if it was DSCOVR or SOHO but one of those Solar Observation satellites gives us a 90-minute 'heads up' on Earth in terms of what type of impact to expect, including the polarity of the CME. Camera and Car is packed so i'll be heading off soon up t'Yorkshire for a all-nighter. Good luck to everyone.

Seems like the MetOffice Aurora model is now bringing the timings further back to 10pm this evening which is a vast difference compared to the NOAA output, i'm tempted to head out early and just pull a 'all nighter' incase it all kicks off within the middle-ground at midnight.

Fen Wolf 3am is when the KP should start to rise above KP5 although for Southern England you'd need at least a KP6 to start seeing anything, it's a tricky one to forecast as the Aurora peaks just as sunrise is beginning so the higher latitudes get the best 'potential' display but the worst timing with regards to the increasing sunlight. We can only hope that the forecast is slightly out by 1hr or so that gives at least a more useable window for viewing.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wsa-enlil-solar-wind-prediction

From what's forecast on various Aurora forecast maps the window for us in the UK tomorrow morning will be between 2am and 5am, after which the twilight will become too bright to see anything. Around 7am is when the peak of the activity will hit at a max KP of 8.33 although it'll be steadily rising from KP7 after 4am but there still could be a chance of seeing things happen much earlier if the colliding CME's speed up before reaching Earth.

Scuba steve I did have the Lake District in mind but with it being weekend there's a chance any overnight parking spots will be taken by the usual campervan folks, so somewhere around the Hawes area is going to be my initial target as the MetO cloud forecast keeps the area completely clear up until 4am with no worries about sea-fog rolling in. Hoping the solar forecast is correct, and with no Moon present it just might be the solar storm of our lifetimes to those all across the UK under clear skies.

A good dive into tonight's geostorm expectations, it seems that from the model forecast it's around 1am when the impact begins.