Aurora!

Many thanks to Ben MacKeown for these pictures of last night's aurora which timed itself perfectly for one of the few clear nights we've had recently. Ben's pictures were taken around eleven o'clock, the first showing the telephone box at Kilmory, while....

....this one was taken from Swordle beach. In both, the islands of Muck, Rum and Eigg can be seen, with the Cuillins of Skye to the right.

Kilchoan Early Bird, who was watching the event between midnight and one in the morning, reported that 'searchlights' of green were added to the 'rainbow' that Ben captured.

This was the first time we've successfully used Russia's Lebedev Physical Institute's website - here - which tries to predict an aurora, to send out an email warning to locals that, with the sky clear, an event might be visible. Using the University of Lancashire's AuroraWatch site and the Willowbank Observatory site on Mull, it was possible to monitor the event as it happened.

Note that the Lebedev site is predicting a major event for the 28th.

Ben McKeown's website is here.