Solar Storm

We met up with Duncan and Alex this morning at The Chocolate Tree and it felt so Christmassy sipping on a winter spice hot chocolate for breakfast.

We have been dreaming of seeing the aurora borealis ever since we returned from Alaska and have made several unsuccessful trips to see it after getting our Figaro. In fact, we almost spending Christmas in the car park of Tesco after running out of gas.

I've become a little obsessed with monitoring the space weather and just as we were about to go to bed tonight, there was an aurora alert that the KP index was 6 and Tom decided we should make a mad dash to Barns Ness in an attempt to see it.

It was cloudy when we left Edinburgh, so we didn't have our hopes up but it was clear and the stars were out as we reached the lighthouse. It takes a little while for your eyes to adjust in the dark, so we took a photo and spotted a faint line of green on the horizon.

The colours grew stronger as the night went on and the moon went behind a cloud with bright greens and pinks. We could see the lights moving slightly but not as clearly as the camera could.

Though it was only a faint, we were so happy to have finally spotted our first aurora and can't wait to see it again someday.