Aurora 2024
Aurora 2024
The best year shooting the Northern Lights
The Aurora, or Northern Lights, is a natural light display usually only seen in the polar regions. It occurs when charged particles from the sun collide with Earth's atmosphere, causing atoms and molecules to emit colourful lights. We are currently in a solar maximum which cycles every 7-11 this means the sun is particularly active and hence we’ve been seeing more of them in Ireland the last couple of months. The aurora is normally more visible close to the poles because Earth’s magnetic field channels solar particles toward these areas but because of the immense solar explosions in recent months they have been strong enough to reach mid latitudes.
I moved to Donegal after university and wasn’t too aware that the Northern Lights could be seen in Ireland. I was getting into landscape photography, especially Astrophotography so I starting researching when best to see them, back then there weren’t many apps like today or facebook pages, just the one. But ever since first shooting them on a cold cliff on the Rosguill Penninsula in Donegal 10 years ago, I was fascinated by them. Normally they appear as a faint green glow on the horizon, sometimes barely visible. I’ve travelled to Iceland and Norway to photograph them but nothing beats the trill of getting them at home in Ireland. As mentioned earlier the sun’s energy cycles so the past few years have been quite enough.
But 2024 was different, in the days before the 10th of May and 10th of October there were some massive explosion on the sun which fired vast amounts of particles towards earth which gave scientist a good indication we were in for some good aurora. In Ireland we were also so lucky that most of the country was cloud free both nights (usually the deciding factor in Ireland), what are the odds of that? So many other decent displays have been blocked out by clouds in the past. Also there was no big moon up which made the sky nice and dark. But no one would have expected the display to be as strong as it was in the end with it reaching overhead and even south at times. I ended up out photographing it all night to capture this one in a lifetime evet (or so I though in May).
May Account and pictures
I was at loop head shooting sunset and was planning to head to the Polnabrone Dolmon on the way back. As it was only about a month away from Summer solstice it only got 100% dark at 0.40am, so I was in major rush to get to the location. That was until I was driving out of Ennis around 11pm and saw lady aurora dancing in the sky above even while driving. I was stuck with the age old question: stop and shoot on the road side and at least get a record of the lights but with no proper foreground or keep driving to the location but maybe miss the display because it has died down again by the time you get there. I stopped for 2 minutes to look up ecstatically, I had never seen anything like it. Also luckily it keep going, going and going, Lional Richie style, all night long! I got to Polnabrone Dolmen and their was a fair amount of people there, everyone super excited to see such an amazing natural wonder in the sky overhead in their home country.
The Aurora seemed to explode just as I got there and my camera set up and I got some amazing images. It was a great location as I could face whichever direction to capture the Aurora with the dolmen in the foreground, not just looking north like expected, it was east, west, south and even overhead. It seemed to light in every possible colour, most of the time it’s green and purple/red but there were purples, whites, blues, greens, yellows reds and many more. I used the 14mm lens to get as much of the Sky in as possible. The amazing display went on for what felt like ages but slowly started to fade off. Unfortunately it wasn’t all perfect, due to the amount of people there I had quiet a few shots ruined by people shining lights at the dolmen and camera, or dogs being let inside the rope that surrounds the dolmen so shortly after midnight I moved on to find quieter locations.
It probably made more sense to stay around the Burren but I was drawn to Connemara for such a once in a lifetime event. My first port of call was the Screebe Fishing hut (sorry for the bad pun). Although looking at it from the front you are facing SW the aurora was moving in and out of the frame with strong reds looking south. It was lovely and quiet both from other people and weather wise, really the perfect night to get an aurora display like we did. Dawn was approaching fast so I made one last dash to a different location to get something different again. I headed to Pine Island, probably the crown jewel of Connemara if I had to pick one spot. The island covered in Scott’s pine on Derryclare Lough with the 12 Bens in the background. You can see in these images that the sky was starting to brighten, the aurora starting to wash out even though it made one last explosion overhead to break through the first of the sun’s light. And with that it was time to call it a night and head home to bed, luckily it was the weekend.
Oct Account and pictures
After being caught a bit short in May I decided to be out and ready as soon as it got dark in October. The weather wasn’t forecast as clear as it was in May with cloud moving in over night from the northwest so I avoided Connemara not to miss it. I decided to start off at Ross Friary and see how the stats would develop and how strong the solar storm arriving to earth would actually turn out to be. It is a lovely location I had visited and photographed a few times in the past so I knew my way around it, it wasn’t too far away from home and like Polnabrone it had access 360 degrees so would allow me to shoot the aurora in any direction depending on when it popped up. It started of rather quite with only a faint glow on the horizon north but slowly built up, with bands of red appearing first adding to the show and the strongest lights being nearly in a east-west orientation. It was amazing to witness and this time there was only a handful of other people around adding to the specialty of the event.
As so often it started to die off a bit so I decided to move on. My next location a lighthouse on the Corrib, the only freshwater lighthouse in Ireland I do believe, a perfectly dark location. Although the Aurora was as strong as earlier it was beautiful with bands of red and green arching across the sky, it was also serenely calm with not a breath of wind. As expected the high cloud slowly started to move in so I headed to clearer skies which lead me through Galway. I stopped at Blackrock diving tower and for fun decided to take a picture to see if the lights were visible so close to the city and light pollution, in May I was able to photograph them on my balcony with a phone. After getting them with a quick shot and not much cloud I decided to put on my waders and head down to explore further. As I was moving around looking for the best composition to include the lights in the frame the Aurora started to explode again overhead, amazing greens and reds visible with the naked eye. It was tricky to get everything into the frame even at 14mm. At this stage several people had gathered to enjoy the lights at the diving tower and it continued to light up the sky for 20min or so while I was chest deep in the sea to get the best angle of the lights over the diving tower to the east. But as expected that slowly started to die off and the cloud moved in once more. So I went further east again to get away from the clouds again. I had a small group of trees in mind that I had seen driving by a few months previously. I was a bit of a walk from the road and there was still bad enough light pollution from the road but it was too late to head somewhere different again so I went for it. I tried a few different angles and there was a nice bit of aurora still around, not as strong as earlier at Blackrock but it was also darker so it came out nice. After about an hour here the cloud finaly caught up with me once more and it was time to pack up and head home for a well earned rest.
Some tips for seeing and photographing it yourself:
-download some Aurora apps, there’s loads out there nowadays or join a group on facebook. These will give you an idea of activity and a rough prediction
-saying that it is very hard to predict, the particles travel at different speeds so sometimes take longer than expected to reach earth
-this means sometimes just going out and waiting until they appear, there is no certain time
-don’t believe the media, they are normally a day or two behind
-check the weather, even the strongest aurora can’t be seen if its cloudy
-find a dark location facing north, bring a flask of tea and wait it out
-use your phone to see better. Phones in ‘night mode’ or long exposure can collect more light and give you a better idea if it’s out
-turn off all lights, car, house, phone etc and let your eyes adjust. It takes your eyes 30 min to adjust to see best in the dark, keep phone screens as dark as possible.
If you would be interested in seeing more of my aurora pictures pictures feel free to check out my Astro gallery.
If you have any questions about the Northern Lights feel free to send me a message, I’m no expert but might be able to help you.