The latter half of 2024 saw the sun's activity hitting it's maximum as part of its eleven year cycle, causing great excitement amongst us folk who love watching amazing natural phenomena, such as the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
Such as my wife Liz and myself, which is why we were to be found looking north out over the Bay of Liverpool on a very chilly evening in mid October from a vantage point at New Brighton on the tip of the Wirral Peninsula in the north of England.
That particular evening we had been alerted to a major solar storm by the app on Liz's phone, so we were hopeful of seeing something spectacular in the night sky over the New Brighton beach.
And we weren't disappointed, as my camera started picking up the typical aurora colours of green and pink in the darkening twilight sky, and it wasn't too much later that we could actually make out the northern lights with the naked eye, a very rare occurence indeed this far south!
But as you may be aware, the aurora is a rapidly changing phenomenon, and this burst of activity only lasted about half an hour before the colours faded from view and it waas time to pack up and head home, already buzzing with anticipation for the next time the sun obliges with a strong solar event.
And with the whole stretch of the North Wales coast to choose from, there's plenty more places from which to catch the action!
Filename - new brighton aurora timelapse 01
Camera - Canon EOS6DMK2
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 17mm
Exposure (start of sequence)- 1/8 sec @ f/4, ISO3200
Exposure (end of sequence) - 6 secs @ f/4, ISO3200
Filters - None.
Location - New Brighton, Wirral Peninsula, England
Music - Kiss the Sky - Aakash Gandhi
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 19 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.