A Wee Aurora

After a day of sunshine, light winds and temperatures that soared to 18C....

....Out&About was at Sanna to record a perfect sunset.

With the Aurora Service prediction of an aurora in the hours before midnight and the night clear and still - this is a trawler passing below our house at half past nine - we kept an eye on the Mull Willowbank website until around ten, when it began to record the start of an event.

The nearest place where we can see the northern horizon is Sanna - picture shows one of Sanna's croft houses with Orion setting behind it. With a waxing quarter moon, the sky was already flooded with light and....

....although there was some colour in the sky towards the northeast, there was little sign of any aurora activity until....

....at about eleven, a thin green arch began to grow along the northern horizon. The lights along the horizon are on Rum, Eigg lies to the right, and the constellation of Cassiopeia is at centre, top.

The event lasted about an hour before it began to fade.

Forecasting an aurora is an inexact science, and this wasn't a great event, but it was good to have a prediction work. Although the Aurora Service forecast is for solar activity to quieten over the next few days, there's an event going on at the moment, but....

....we obviously can't see it in daylight.

This was dawn this morning, with the sun now rising to the left of Maclean's Nose at ten to seven. All the signs are that we're to enjoy another pleasant, if not as sunny, day.

Many thanks to Out&About for the picture.