After a few nights of cloud and rain in south-west Iceland it was nice to get a lovely clear night this evening and an unexpectedly nice show of aurora. I noticed a faint (to the naked eye) arc forming in the north sky at 21:35 UTC, and this arc developed over time into a vivid green colour and two to three separate bands (Image 1). For a while it didn’t seem like much more would happen, but then from 22:15 UTC the activity started to raise higher in the sky and develop into a rayed band (Images 2 to 4). This was followed by a period of fairly strong aurora activity from 22:37 until 22:48 (Images 5 to 10), with multiple curtains of rayed aurora moving across the sky and vivid greens with a few pinks to the naked eye. Most of this occurred relatively low in the northern sky, with only weaker aurora higher in the sky. I left the site at 23:05 and low activity was still ongoing at that time.
Image 1. 22:04 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 7.5 sec. The aurora developed into two separate bands.
Image 2. 22:28 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 6.4 sec.
Image 3. 22:29 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 5 sec.
Image 4. 22:33 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 11 sec.
Image 5. 22:37 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 3 sec.
Image 6. 22:39 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 5 sec.
Image 7. 22:47 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 6 sec.
Image 8. 22:47 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 4.1 sec.
Image 9. 22:47 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 4.6 sec.
Image 10. 22:47 UTC. Settings = f/2.8, 14 mm, 7.1 sec.
