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From here (Durham) the central rosette took on the shape of a bird or angel. It was really dramatic. I think this feature was centred over the North East region? Apologies for the neighbour’s soil pipe intruding into the shot!
That's almost like a Brocken Spectre!
 
Auroral pareidolia!

438169696_3831524893840587_6813448044005811700_n.jpg


There were some small clouds giving the appearance of a face in the purple area of the aurora here. This picture is "borrowed" from a local Facebook page and was taken at Stone Street so the bright lights may be Canterbury.
 
Am so cross that I didn't get to see more than wisps last night. I didn't think to look through my phone! Going out tonight to hope that they will stage another appearance, and will try for photos. Hoping that I'm far enough north in Yorkshire to be able to see something.
 
What does looking through your phone do?
 
Some cell phones are more sensitive to faint colours like aurorae. I couldn't really see any colour last night, but some pictures taken at the same time show brilliant reds and greens.
 
I should think that might just be about taking photos with long exposure.
 
We are supposed to see them where I live which is just south of Chicago but we had clouds last night.
Hope to see then tonight ...its just 4 pm here now.
 
I saw them! Just after sunset. Not colours but tall bands of light stretching waaay up and a base glow all south of me. Nifty. And to add to the event a recent Starlink deployment of about 30 satellites went across. That must’ve tripped out the uneducated skywatchers, and there were many people out. I go to isolated spots and had about 5 carloads drop by near me in my 90min under the veil. Big news indeed.
 
The sky was clear, with loads of stars and a crescent Moon visible and I was scanning the heavens regularly between Eurovision songs and after the whole shebang around 00:30, but, didn't see a thing down here in Hampshire. :(
 
I missed the lights on Friday night so don't know how bright they were here. I noticed on the videos that the badger made a very brief visit and seemed uneasy. It picked up the banana but left without eating anything. I wonder whether the aurora seemed like the first hint of dawn to nocturnal beasties?
 
I also missed them on Friday night, waking up to online reports of people standing in their back gardens in Leeds and being treated to amazing displays. Last night, Otley Chevin was absolutely thronged with people. We kept going further north to Little Almscliffe Crags and the nearby car park there was busy, but we found a space next to a couple sitting in a VW Beetle with the roof down. Aurora app was showing red, but the cloud cover went from nine to ten tenths pretty quickly, and then the fog came down... Bah, humbug.
 
An extremely rare event for some local people to see the Northern Lights in our location.

I think the local weatherman said this would be a one in a lifetime event in our location or longer.

I did not see the northern lights, but it seems my cell phone camera supposedly has better photoreceptors than our human eyes.

Amazingly I saw some stars I could not see with my naked eyes.
 
It might be that your cell phone camera picked up stars only visible in infrared.
 
Scientists are not sure what to expect but the sun has done its 27 day rotation and now the eighteen earth size huge sun spot is now directly aiming at earth.

More large Northern Lights, just not sure.
 
During the first week of May, the Northern Lights in the U.S. we’re seen as far south as Florida.

NASA claims this event was historic because it could be several lifetimes before this situation happens again.

The energy streams during that time were perfectly in line with each other which does not usually happen.
 

Rare Steve phenomenon and Northern Lights dazzle in UK skies​


The night sky with stars filling the sky and a large streak of red representing a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, also known as Steve

UK sky-watchers on Monday night were treated to the rare phenomenon known as Steve.


While Steve can look like the aurora and often appears during a showing of the Northern Lights, it is fundamentally different.
Steve is a relatively new scientific discovery and last night was spotted in parts of Scotland and north-east England.
There was also some spectacular sightings of the Northern Lights as far south as Buckinghamshire and Norfolk.


Night sky with stars and a ribbon of white and red light across the sky. In the background, hints of purple and green of the Northern Lights

Steve was spotted in the night sky in Northumberland among the Northern Lights

What is Steve?​

Steve - or to give it its full name, Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement - is unpredictable and only lasts for a short time.
Little is known about its formation and why it can sometimes appear during an aurora display.

While auroras happen in an oval shape, Steve appears as a ribbon and lasts for 20 minutes to an hour before disappearing.
While Steve is only spotted in the presence of an aurora, it is not a normal aurora as scientists suggests it comprises a fast-moving stream of extremely hot particles called a sub-auroral ion drift, or SAID.

As Steve is unpredictable and only lasts for a short time, recording occurrences from the ground is rare.
The last sightings of Steve in the UK were back in November 2023.

While there have been photographs of Steve for decades, it only got the name Steve in 2016, following a US citizen science project funded by Nasa and the National Science Foundation.

Trees in the foreground, looking up to the night sky with some patches of cloud. Between the cloud, stars are bright with a streak of red running across the sky


Where does Steve come from?​

The inspiration behind the glow's name is thought to be a scene from the animated movie Over the Hedge.

In it, a group of animals awake from hibernation to find what to them is another awe-inspiring phenomenon - a big garden hedge.
"What is this thing?" one creature says.

"I'd be a lot less afraid of it if I just knew what it was called," another says, before a squirrel recommends calling it Steve.
"I'm a lot less scared of Steve," another animal replies.

Scientists later adapted the name into an acronym: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
And it is not just sky-watchers who have shown an interest in Steve.

In 2019, the Canadian government minted a collector's coin worth $20 featuring the mysterious streaks of light.

Old windmill dominating the picture with the Northern Lights in the night sky behind

Northern Lights spotted in Buckinghamshire on Monday night

Northern Lights also visible​

As well as Steve, the Northern Lights were spotted across the UK through Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
There were sightings from our BBC Weather Watchers from the Western Isles, Buckinghamshire and as far south as Kent.
Activity on the Sun has remained high since one of the largest solar flares in seven years last week.

Solar winds have sent charged particles towards Earth with aurora expected over the last few nights.
However, it has been too cloudy for most with the timing of aurora not quite coinciding with UK night-time.

More sightings of the Northern Lights are possible in the next few nights - cloud permitting - as solar activity remains relatively high.

Silhouette of a house roof with very bright colours of the aurora in the sky behind it. Deep purple and red streaks in the sky

Deep purples and reds of the aurora borealis were seen in the Western Isles on Monday night

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c4g0j7zn813o
 
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