The breathtaking natural light show that is the Aurora Borealis appeared over Donegal last night.
A striking display of green curtains danced across the sky as far south as Ballintra, where it was photographed by Noel Keating.
The vivid display is just the beginning of an exciting weekend for aurora hunters. Record levels of solar activity on Wednesday night sparked a high aurora alert for Friday and Saturday all over the northern hemisphere.
The lights, which typically appear in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, can be seen in Donegal during times of strong activity.
The further north the better they can be seen, and Ireland’s most northerly point at Inishowen is usually an aurora hotspot.
Photographer Noel Keating shared his snaps with Donegal Daily today after a late night waiting patiently on the lights. The clouds parted at 2am to reveal the stunning show.
Noel said: “I really thought the clouds were never going to clear… what a great vivid display, really enjoyed just sitting back and watching the show.”
Aurora Borealis over Ballintra Donegal, 8th September 2017. Photo: Noel Keating Photography
He said the lights were so strong that they were visible to the naked eye, which is not often the case. Cameras set to long exposures pick up the colours when the eye does not.
There is a good chance of seeing the lights on Friday night leading into Saturday morning if weather conditions are good.
Noel shares his aurora advice with Donegal Daily ahead of what could be the best show in a decade:
“Get to as dark a location as possible away from street lights and keep an eye on Stackplots for TGO, as this tells you when the Aurora is in the sky. If they see a dip in the RVK line or lines below that, that will indicate that there is aurora visible around our latitude.”
In this link you can see the dips from 11pm to 2am. Noel advises clicking the realtime button to refresh page: http://flux.phys.uit.no/cgi-bin/mkstackplot.cgi?MidEu=Mid-Europe&comp=H&day=00&month=00&year=0000&site=tro2a
Spaceweather will give all details down left hand side of page too: spaceweather.com
Thanks to Noel Keating for sharing his photos. You can follow his Facebook here. If you are lucky to capture the aurora this weekend, send your snaps to info@donegaldaily.com to be featured.
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