Saturday 12 March 2011

Clear skies

The mirrie dancers (or merry dancers, northern lights or aurora borealis) have been quite active recently. Unfortunately the weather has conspired against getting good views of them a lot of the time, with cloudy skies and snowstorms, but Friday was a beautiful evening, albeit extremely cold, and I got some great views.



I moved around a bit taking photos, but it was so slippery with a very hard frost on top of a snowfall, that I was scared of falling and breaking my camera, so after a while I stationed myself at the door of the house.


Although it was mostly just a huge arc of colour, later in the evening there was a little more activity.



Eventually there was also some pinky colour, as well as the green, but it was fading by then, and the sky was also starting to cloud over.


Earlier it had been a beautifully clear, starry sky.

Orion over my house

Saturday morning was beautiful too - a hard frost, beautiful cloud formations, lots of seals on the skerries and eider ducks calling from the shore.




 I'm really going to miss this special spot when I move.

3 comments:

Mary Z said...

Great photos. Thanks to Sian for sending me here.

The Wessex Reiver said...

Great photos of the aurora Fiona, and a good blog too, which I've come across from Sian on Life on a Small Island. your commuting post made me realise how lucky I am with just half an hour, but then again, looks like an adventure for you. Regards Andrew

Iain said...

It sure looks good.....we often had the Lights in northern Sweden, generally when temps were between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees. Always an extraordinary sight. Looks like Spring has arrived on the Islands.....welcome, no doubt!