Seeing the Northern lights or Aurora is most definitely something many people will want to witness in their lifetime.
When we did our epic three week Scotland trip in 2022, we had hoped to see the lights when near Stornoway but it just didn’t happen.
Below is an evening scene in Aird near Stornoway where we were staying. Unfortunately, there was no Aurora while we were there.
The Aurora in Norfolk
When social media went crazy with Aurora photos across Norfolk on a Sunday evening at the end of February 2023, we realised we’d missed an opportunity.
What was even more galling was that we had been in one of the best locations in North Norfolk at a nature reserve in Cley.
To add insult to injury, when I looked at my phone, I had several alerts from an Aurora app telling me the likelihood of Aurora activity was high.
The reason I didn’t take any notice was that I had installed this app last year in Scotland but due to never seeing a high alert, had been ignoring the alerts. I had also intended to delete the app thinking that an Aurora was never going to happen this far South.
As we finished work on the Monday evening, my wife and I decided to go out to see if we could catch some of the Northern lights that night. There were reports of the lights still being visible albeit there was some cloud so it wouldn’t be so good as the previous evening. The Aurora app looked promising.
Chasing the Northern Lights in the East
After some debate, and realising some North Norfolk locations were going to be crowded, we decided to head up to Happisburgh. This seemed to be a good choice since there could be plenty of space, and the lighthouse would make a good focal point.
On arriving, we could see plenty of cars heading into the car park, so decided to make our way to the road the other side of the lighthouse, which would mean a view across the field.
While there was not much sign of the lights, on occasion there was some colour in the night time sky, reds and greens. It was subtle, but definitely there.
I set up my tripod and camera and began taking some test shots. I’d never done ‘Astro’ photography before so had to do a quick check before we left home.
The advice was to set the widest aperture and 6-12 seconds shutter speed, and accept a high ISO was going to be necessary.
I took my 14-30 ultra-wide angle lens so f/4 would be my widest aperture possible. I did indeed need to bump up the ISO, and more as the evening darkness progressed.
What I was seeing on my camera was amazing. Stars visible and some Northern lights colour. I took loads of shots experimenting with different shutter speeds. I noticed that taking too long exposure resulted in the stars being blurry due to movement.
Also, the residents of the lighthouse occasionally came outside and put their outdoor lights on which made the shot challenging. How dare they go about their personal business in their own residence!
We moved locations along the track two or three times just to change composition. But I was blown away with the good images I captured, with my best one below:
It got to about 9:45pm and we were waiting for the next Aurora peak according to the app. But it was very cold and getting colder stood out in the open on a field right next to the cliff and sea.
According to the app, the next best moment would be midnight. However with noticeably more cloud arriving, we made a decision to call it a night, had a quick cup of tea in the car to warm up and headed home feeling very satisfied.
I will keep the Aurora app and have now set the alerts to only tell me if there is activity in the ‘High’ category. I hadn’t realised until I checked that the default was to alert for any activity, which explains why the app alerts had been annoying me, and I had ignore them.
Astro photography was a bit easier than I had imagined, can be done with your existing kit, and was very enjoyable.
Onwards and upwards…