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It's a year after solar maximum and I've barely seen any aurora activity during 2025 at all, the reason has simply been the prolific number of cloudy nights we have had in N. Ireland this year. I did see the New Year's Eve storm however it faded quickly after dark leaving a nice SARs arc for several hours, however the main aurora was gone. I was clouded out for all aurora events ever since, the most recent during October when comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon was captured in the midst of a beautiful display. I was chatting with my friends around this time and we were seriously facing the prospect we might not see a decent aurora before the year ended.
This was November and before we know it 2025 will be over with little in the way of aurora photography to show for it, I said I would be grateful if I could just get one half decent display before the year ended so I watched and waited. November saw a major uptick in solar activity, a monster sunspot group was transiting the far side of the solar disk producing constant solar flares and CMEs. Everyone was watching with quiet anticipation, if this group survived and stayed active the sun's rotation would bring it into view within the Earth's strike zone by mid month, could we be so lucky?, I deliberately didn't post my thoughts about it on social media as even the hint of a whisper could jinx it. The it appeared around the E limb, still erupting, the anticipation began to build, could this actually work out?, all it needed it to do was continue erupting then when it approached the meridian it would be perfectly placed for a direct hit, and if this flare producer could continue it's magic as a geomagnetic GPMG then surely the laws of chance would mean we would get something on one single clear night. I observed the group in the 90mm ETX using the projection method, a beautiful large group with a complex magnetic field, it looked the part, others could see it with the protected naked eye. It produced M-class then X-class flares, the associated CMEs were not shy and it looked like multiple rounds of CME clouds were sent earthbound.
Of course we were clouded out for them all, then the sun sent a barrage of CMEs, NOAA forecasters anticipated that two CMEs could arrive one after the other on November 11th/12th then another on the 12th/13th, severe geomagnetic storms were expected. I was only interested on the 11th/12th event as the nights before and after would be cloudy so the 11th had a chance of clear breaks so this had to work out. At first G1 to G2 storms were forecast however the outlook was revised, if both CMEs hit in unison and if the Bz worked out then G3 storms were possible. It was all down to timing, some sources were going for an arrival time during the late afternoon or early evening of the 11th while others were going for after midnight or the pre-dawn hours of the 12th, it would mean monitoring the charts closer to the time.
On November 11th the moon would be a waning gibbous phase rising during the late evening so there would be lunar interference, however if the storm did reach G3 levels then there wouldn't be any concern, an aurora of that caliber would easily jump out of the sky, especially to experienced observers. It was just all down to timing, my gut told me it would be a late hit, I knew this was going to be my only chance to get a good aurora this year so I was on edge all day. The weather was iffy to be honest, the main forecast was going for clear spells, a front would clear through to the N during the late afternoon then drier clearer weather would move up in it's wake. I didn't like the vibes from it, this was a SWly flow, never great for clear skies this time of year and with plenty of humidity it wouldn't take much for cloud or mist to form, and these conditions always accentuated light pollution which ruins dark skies and affects transparency. The trusted UKTV model was showing a lot of cloud for my area but more clear towards the N and NE later in the night, I didn't plan on hunting there as I wasn't liking the sky at all and there was no sign of the CME, and from home at sunset the small clear breaks we had were filling in with cloud, I didn't like it at all and already considered the night a bust. However I was going to stay up just incase and monitor how the event was going to unfold.
It was 22.00 and there wasn't much to show for it, there was a steady rise in the solar wind speed but nothing exciting, I was getting tired and was tempted to call it a night but gave myself a mental rebuke. The absolutely worst thing you can do in these situations is to go to bed and get warm and comfy and kid yourself you will check the charts and go out when it kicks off, the reality is you probably wont, it takes a lot of self discipline to do that on a late Autumn/early Winter night. I decided I would just stay up, I would give it to 01.00 and if a no show then I would go to bed. I watched youtube, took my mind off it, then checked outside, it was clear!, that was interesting, the models didn't show this area clearing at all, yet it was, if that could stay that way then that was half the battle. Then I checked social media, posts galore about the CME about to arrive, that was great timing, it was about midnight, I wondered if it would stay clear and if magnetic midnight would invigorate the aurora. I wasn't leaving though if I didn't see some proof it was going to be good, if the Bz wasn't decent then I would let it go. I decided to check the one and only source which wouldn't lie and that was the dscvr spacecraft. It showed a massive Bz drop to -40 in the near future, possibly within the hour maybe less, this was happening!, there was going to be a major aurora. I grabbed the gear and drove off in the van under clear skies and my heart filled with hope.
I headed for Lough Fea in my local area, I couldn't believe it, 100% cloud cover, the cloud was low and humid looking and moving at high speed, there was no way this was working out and even worse the light pollution from the local quarries looked one hundred times worse in the moist area, big intense glows which would destroy photography, I gave a silent curse, that was a waste of time, yet another night destroyed by endless cloud, 2025 had struck again. I also was preparing for an astronomy talk which I was due to deliver the very next evening on November 12th. I was invited by the Irish Astronomical Association to give a talk at Queen's University, I had the talk well prepared however I would have liked to have been going over it one more time tonight and getting rest instead of standing under cloud all night loosing sleep. I began to drive home when clear spells suddenly appeared, that was interesting, it seemed the more I went to lower ground and south the more clear it was. I stopped again on a back road, clear, but no aurora, where the heck was it?, it should have been here by now.
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I got back in the van and drove on but this time I pulled in near the forest at the rear entrance to Lissan. Clear spells, passing cloud, no naked eye aurora, I began taking images to see if the camera could detect it, still nothing, I then shot images W and E and overhead incase of a SARs arc, nothing again. Was this already a damp squib?, I was getting myself worked up so calmed myself, maybe the CME just hadn't hit yet, perhaps it was a little slower moving than expected. I drove back home to Cookstown and peaked at the online stats, solarham had announced that G4 conditions had already been met, this was a major G4 storm, even better than expected, the adrenaline began to hit, what to do, drive back out, but where?, I decided to put the drone up for a check on the northern sky, of course nothing was straight forward this night. The drone wouldn't go higher than 30m as I was logged out of my DJI account, I had no idea why as I was logged in weeks ago and the wifi was always off. So I had to waste time bringing it inside to connect with the wifi, log in, I had forgotten my password and had to make a new one, could this not have happened on another night, eventually I got it sorted and got the drone in the air, took an exposure and there was an aurora. A faint green band with several subtle red beams, nothing great looking but I had seen enough, the CME was arriving and a big show was minutes away. I jumped in the van and drove back out into the night not knowing where to go, I was literally driving by pure instinct.
I wasn't going back to Lough fea, it still looked cloudy over the hills in that direction and the N had low cloud too, it seemed inland where I was and south had much better clear skies. I could sense the aurora was about to kick off any minute, there literally is no interesting foreground in the Cookstown area which I could use, the lp was worse N along the carriageway, I was completely stuck, I don't know why but I drove a few hundred meters outside the town lights and entered a long straight dark country road, the turn off for Lissan House was ahead, suddenly I saw a small lay by on the right hand side of the road and I just stopped in that trusting my instincts. The lay by was located at the entrance to a long lane which lead to a farm house and what looked like a long low barn with dim lights, possibly full of chickens, flat fields surrounded this property and all around was dark, this could work.
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I walked out onto the centre of the road and liked the prospect of shooting the aurora over it, especially at night when there was very little traffic. Then I spotted a cluster of cool looking trees which lined the road on both sides, I had never even noticed these before until now, I got a good feeling this was going to work then I saw the aurora with the naked eye, it was easy to see, very red, and was intensifying by the minute. Full frame Canon 5D mark IV with 15mm F/2.8 lens. Then I felt a sudden calmness, the sky was clear all around and the aurora was happening and I was adapting to my newly found location and getting excited, first image of the night, finally my first aurora since New Year.
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The Bz was swinging far S and a cluster of vivid red and white rays manifested to the NW almost blowing out in the exposure, you can actually see the red reflecting on the tin roof of the barn in the distance. The trees were perfect however there where other trees around me which kept poking into my wide angle field making a clean composition difficult, I like my images to lack clutter so this was challenging, I had to constantly move the camera around the road trying to find as clean a composition as possible.
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The aurora was now a huge red diffuse band extending from the N to the W, it was already 70 degrees high and ghostly red pillars were appearing inside it, the big show was underway and I still couldn't believe my luck with the clear skies. I found a composition I was really pleased with, camera set-up rite on the middle of the road using the converging road and white lines to lead the eye into the trees then upward to the aurora. The road was wet from earlier rain so the greens and reds could easily be seen reflecting on it. I was absolutely buzzing, even if it clouded over soon after I would have been happy with this image as a keeper from the night.
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Panning to the W/NW, the reds were vivid, the curtains massive, Pleiades cluster visible to upper left
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Back to the centre of the road, the entire countryside was glowing red, it honestly looked like the sky was on fire, the red extended far beyond the left and right of the camera field here, and above it, and the aurora seemed to be growing bigger and intensifying, it was like it was living and breathing in real time. I thought a time lapse of this scene would be epic, I began shooting one, then walked back to the side of the side of the road and leaned against the van and took in the view. I basked under the eerie red glow of the storm, I was in heaven, buzzing, happy, glowing inside, talking to myself out loud in awe at the sky, even cursing with delight, I honestly never expected to be seeing anything like this tonight. A time lapse was underway then a lonely car appeared forcing me to run to the road and grab the camera, I didn't have enough frames for a lapse, once the car passed I continued shooting still images.
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It was difficult to know where to point the camera, first the N had the best rays, then they would vanish then the W/NW would get the rays, then they would vanish then the centre would unfurl a battalion of red beams. This image was almost overhead where a hint of a corona was trying to form.
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Time flies when you are having fun, it was after 02.00 and I had already been watching this beautiful show for almost two hours yet it only seemed like minutes. Some passing cloud blew across the sky making for an arty looking affect on camera.
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Then the sky cleared again, it was almost 03.00 and another outburst was happening, at this time the Bz dropped to an astonishing -60. The sky was on fire again, literally looked like the glow from some major wild fire away in the distance punctuated by countless fine beams, all of which we sharp and moving at a moderate speed, my exposure time was 3.2 seconds and beams were blurring somewhat in that short time frame. Sky was red with pinks and even hints of orange, the brightest beams had a pink-white look and intense greens could be seen lower down. However the dominant colour was crimson, an aurora dominated by red is much more rare than the other kind of colours, these are caused by high speed solar wind particles interacting with oxygen molecules high up in the atmosphere, reds are always higher than the greens.
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Directly at the zenith where some sort of corona was flirting in and out of existence, this area was fainter to the eye but still could be seen
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Display too large to fit in the FOV, I was loving this angle with camera at side of the road and tree at rule of thirds, camera taking in entire N to W sky, road still glowing red.
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It was a constantly evolving show, sometimes fading then brightening again, at other times a soft red glow then at unexpected moments rays would manifest in random sectors.
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Looking N/NE to my half right, aurora and moon together, the aurora was so bright the moon might as well not have been there. The farm was quiet, I wondered if the owners were asleep or were they too watching the sky in awe. I hoped they were asleep as I didn't want to get compromised and have to explain myself, I didn't want to get kicked off this location has it turned out to be perfect, I tried to make as little noise as possible.
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Another outburst with big isolated beams cutting through the celestial fire. I attempted another time lapse, actually on four different occasions, but it didn't work out, I couldn't commit to leaving the camera in the one position, there was too much amazing scenes happening left and right of me, I just kept stopping the lapse to shoot another area of sky. I did have my other crop sensor DSLR in the kit bag, I could have set it up and shot a lapse but I didn't want to be over thinking things, two camers on the centre of a dark road late at night while being distracted by the sky was too much to think about if a car suddenly appeared. I decided to take single images and just relax and enjoy nature at her finest.
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Van headlights lit red with the aurora, I wish I had stood on the van roof for a selfie for this one
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03.30 and ongoing, I only saw a couple of cars all night so I had this road all to myself, there's something so weird and satisfying about standing in a road in the middle of the night and you are the only one there and with this aurora the entire experience felt like a dream. Roisin rang me to say our dog Rhua was howling and stressing wondering where I was, I felt sorry for her so I decided I would go back to see her shortly, I was only a ten minute drive from home anyway.
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Another outburst kept me where I was for a few minutes longer, this time I could see hints of purple among the reds and pinks, the sky was just so awesome.
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Above the tree tops and below the zenith
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To think that earlier I was worked up about not knowing where to go and having no foreground interest, then some compulsion took me here, I have never stopped here in my life before even though I drive along this road most days. The crimson road, the country atmosphere, and those dark trees actually made for a fantastic scene, I was well pleased how this had all worked out, honestly I couldn't have been happier. The white object to the lower right was the farmers post box, similar to post boxes seen in movies from the USA, I loved this moment, I took one last look then drove back home to see my dog.
I was at the back door inserting the key into the lock when I looked overhead, there where vivid red and orange beams rite over the roof at the zenith, it was 04.00 and the storm was still ongoing, what a show. Turned out this was the third strongest aurora of the solar cycle which means I have witnessed all three of those major events with clear skies which is a miracle in itself. May 10th 2024 (G5), October 10th 2024 (G4) and November 11th 2025 (G4), and every single one of them looked different and amazing in their own way. My head rested on my pillow buzzing with joy from the experience, I needed to rest, I had my IAA talk to do later in the day but it was difficult to keep the imprint of that crimson aurora out of my mind.
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The talk went well, Roisin and I went to Queen's University, it was wonderful to meet old friends from my early astronomy days, long time observing mate Conor McDonald was there and even my Dad and his partner came along too. My talk was called Night Sky Hunting, it was about my life, how I got into astronomy when I first saw Hale-Bopp in 1997, then an overview of ten years of comet hunting followed by a look back at comet NEOWISE and the best NLCs and auroras I have experienced in recent years. I even brought along one of my observing log books and thankfully it seemed to have generated much interest. It was also wonderful to have met Pro Alan Fitzsimmons, a professional astronomer and a lover of all comets, he's currently involved in the latest work with comets and asteroids and the search for new comets. He has appeared many times on television via the Sky At Night, BBC, Horizon, and countless astronomical documentaries around the world. I really enjoyed my conversation with Alan and wish him well in the future with his work and I hope that he too gets to see another great comet in the future.
A few nights later on November 16th/17th I added two new comets to my growing list during a frosty pre-dawn session. C/2025 K1 ATLAS at 04.00 in Leo Minor as a mag +10 beautiful comet with a 10 arc minute straight dust tail. The comet had fragmented in dramatic fasion, the coma was elongated with two stellar condensation inside, one beside the other, I suspected a third a little further away to the N inside the coma, amazing to see individual components like this, my 99th comet.
Then at 06.00 low in the E above the roof tops was interstellar comet 3i/ATLAS, a faint oval fuzzy spot with a weak condensation at centre, fainter than mag +10 and DC:4. The comet was affected by light from the nearby crescent moon and from local lp however I could see it for a good 15 min's before I ended the session. It didn't look spectacular but knowing it came from another solar system and hence from another star, a visitor that's estimated to be seven billion years old which was drifting through our galaxy from the direction of Sagittarius made this observation a rare event. My 100th observed comet couldn't have been more perfect. Thanks very much for reading.
Martin McKenna
