Oh what a night! - As the old song goes.
Every year, around the start of August, I start to get excited about the approaching peak of the Perseid meteor storm, which occurs over the nights of 11th-12th and 12th-13th, anxiously scanning the weather forecasts hoping for a clear night sky over North Wales.
Now as you might know, clear skies over North Wales are quite rare, and my plans to go out and photograph the meteors were thwarted on the night of 11th-12th as a bank of dense cloud rolled across the night sky in advance of an approaching weather front.
But the following night looked much more hopeful, with a ridge of high pressure developing over my area, clearing the overnight skies in advance of another weather front scheduled to bring more cloud at dawn on the morning of the 13th.
But what really ramped up the excitement stakes was a major solar event that had started on the evening of the 11th and was continuing overnight up until the morning of the 13th.
This solar storm was bombarding the earth's upper atmosphere with charged particles, creating a vivid display of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, visible right down to the south coast of England - a very rare event!
So I was doubly excited on the evening of the 12th August as I loaded my gear into the car, hoping to catch the Perseid meteors and the aurora at the same time.
But where to go for the best chance of seeing both?
Well, when photographing the aurora and meteors at night I had certain constraints to consider.
Firstly I needed a location with reasonably dark skies, or the meteors and aurora would be hard to distinguish against the yellow glow of light pollution.
Secondly, as the aurora, and the origin of the Perseids, were both to the north I needed a view with relatively unobstructed views of the sky in that direction.
Thirdly I needed a location with some strking foreground interest that I could include in my compositions, as images of just the sky and the horizon get a little tedious after a while, and I wanted to showcase some iconic welsh landmark in whatever images I managed to capture that night.
And fourthly, but not so important, I wanted to be able to park close by, as I had a lot of equipment to carry to my chosen viewpoint. (I must be getting feeble in my old age!)
Fortunately for me, having lived an explored for years around North Wales, I knew a few potential locations that fulfilled all of my requirements.
So in the end I chose Penmon Point on the southeastern tip of Anglesey, just off the North Wales coast.
With its north facing aspect, overlooking the iconic Trwyn Du lighthouse and Puffin Island, and reasonably dark skies, Penmon ticked all the boxes, and with parking close to the lighthouse I could carry all my camera gear, including two camera and tripods, right down to the water's edge to begin filming.
I started taking the first of the images for this series of time lapse clips at around 10.30pm, when there still an afterglow of twilight in the sky, but even then the first vestiges of the strong aurora were starting to appear on my camera's monitor, even though they couldn't be seen with the naked eye.
And I kept on shooting with both cameras all through the night up until the dawn light overcame the colours of the aurora and the promised cloud cover crept across the sky from the south.
There were quite a few other photographers out and about that night, and it was nice to have a chat during the seven hours I spent on the rocks watching the amazing spectacle playing out in the skies above.
And the funny thing was, although I saw a few meteors zooming across the heavens, none of the 1,274 frames I captured that night showed any of them!
Filename - penmon aurora timelapse 01
Camera - (Clips #1, #2 & #3) - Canon EOS6DMK2
Camera - (Clips #4 & #5) - Canon EOS250D
Lens (Clips #1, #2 & #3) - 14mm prime
Lens (Clips #4 & #5) - 17-40mm zoom @ 17mm
Exposure (Clips #1, #2 & #3) - f/2.8, ISO and shutter speed adusted with changing brightness levels, but mostly 15 seconds @ ISO6400.
Exposure (Clips #4 & #5) - f/4, ISO and shutter speed adusted with changing brightness levels, but mostly 15 seconds @ ISO6400
Filters - None.
Location - Penmon Point, Anglesey, North Wales
Music - Kiss the Sky - Aakash Gandhi
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 48 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.