New Shetland magnetometer

In collaboration with the Shetland Amenity Trust, and thanks to funding from Gradconsult, the AuroraWatch UK team are delighted to announce that we have installed a new magnetometer in Sumburgh, Shetland. This new magnetometer is located in the grounds of the Sumburgh Head lighthouse, making it the most northerly magnetometer in our network. Arguably, it…

Flares and CMEs galore!

As you will have seen on our Facebook page, several interesting solar developments have taken place recently and they may bring some awesome auroral displays in the coming days (hopefully!). In this blog post, we’ll run through exactly what’s happened and why we’re excited. Updates in red. M5 solar flare – 04 September 2017 A…

A disappointing night

We had such high hopes. Predictions were good, the best we’d seen for a while, and the early stats were promising but the aurora fizzled out before we had a chance to see it. Our long summer evenings played a small part here. With so few hours of darkness, catching a sighting of the aurora…

The “golden aurora”

The aurora can come in many different colours. From stunning greens to deep reds and velvety purples, the aurora never fails to amaze. But have you ever seen a golden aurora? In the photo above, captured by Andy Stables on 16th March 2016 from the Isle of Skye (Scotland), there’s a wonderful golden band of…

New AuroraWatch UK Magnetometer

Thanks to generous funding from GradConsult, an SME specialising in graduate employment, the AuroraWatch UK team are pleased to announce that a new magnetometer will soon be added to our aurora alert network. As part of their newly-founded microgrant scheme, Gradconsult have provided funding for us to build a new Raspberry Pi based magnetometer and…

AuroraCam update

As we blogged about back in March last year, AuroraWatch UK received funding to build an all-sky camera. Today, we have some news to share with you about it! For the past couple of weeks, we have been running a dedicated AuroraWatch UK camera from the roof of our home: the Department of Physics at…

Citizen scientists discover new type of aurora

The aurora Steve. Rémi Farvacque‎/Alberta Aurora Chasers (facebook) Nathan Case, Lancaster University A collaboration between aurora-hunting citizen scientists and a team of professional researchers has resulted in the discovery of a completely new type of aurora. The finding was made possible thanks to photos taken by aurora enthusiasts from across the globe which scientists could…

Lancaster University Community Day… see you there!

If you’re interested in the aurora or anything space related, we might just have the event for you! Lancaster University are holding a Community Day on Saturday 6th May. It will be a day full of exhibitions, mini talks, hands-on activities, food and drink, and live music and performance – all held within the University’s…

27 March Red alert

Woah, what a night! For the first time since October last year, AuroraWatch UK issued a red alert (at 20:45 BST). This was then followed up by a couple of hours of amber alert and surrounded by periods of minor geomagnetic activity (yellow alert). Alert explanation The red alert was generated by the magnetic disturbance…