I’d been keeping my eyes glued to the aurora forecast eagerly awaiting the arrival of multiple X class CME’s from giant sunspot group AR 3664. The animation below shows the development of the gigantic structure as it made it’s way across the Sun’s surface. Luckily once twilight was beginning to fade around 11pm on the 10th May, the skies were crystal clear, and we were treated to a beautiful display. I captured hundreds of images during the night, many featuring a small local church in the village of Stillingfleet providing some foreground interest. Sadly focussing in the dark isn’t a strong point of my 10 year old Fujifilm XT-1, so most of the shots are slightly out of focus.

While the aurora itself didn’t quite match the mind-blowing display in 2000, it was definitely in the top 3 auroras I’ve witnessed from the UK, and one which will live long in the memory. I knew it was a big display at the time when I realised I was looking toward southern horizon instead of looking north!

Image details: Fujifilm XT-1, Sigma 16mm f1.4 at f1.4. Exposure lengths between 1 and 4 seconds at iso 400. Edited in Adobe Camera Raw & Photoshop.