A digression.
I suppose many people have “seeing the Northern Lights” on their bucket list. Although it’s perfectly possible to see them in North Wales, somehow I have never managed it. It’s either too cloudy or they appear too late, or I miss the alert from the University of Lancaster AuroraWatchUK. The Lights have that mystery which attaches to spectacular natural phenomena, but also – for me – the additional attraction of things experienced vicariously as a child, through the memories of my parents. My father grew up in Aberdeen in the days before intensive street lighting, and the Aurora Borealis was, if not commonplace, just another of those things that happened from time to time. My mother saw the Lights once, during the War, and the story is associated with the other tales she told of nursing in the Thirties and Forties: low pay, autocratic matrons, the unexploded bomb in the Nurses Home at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and working in a T.B. Sanatorium by Lake Windermere, where the boys preferred to sleep outside on the balconies (in their beds) in all weathers.
I was really hoping for a chance to see the Aurora during my stay in Shetland. On Tuesday, the auspices were excellent: significant magnetic activity on AuroraWatchUK, and a forecast of a clear night. I spent all evening in the Stevenson Room, looking out of the window. I even set the alarm and got up in the middle of the night for another look. Nothing. So you can imagine my feelings when I looked online on Wednesday morning and saw the overnight Sumburgh Head webcam footage of brilliant green Northern Lights, taken 20 yards away from the spot where I was peering Northwards and seeing nothing apart from the airport lights.
And there lies part of the explanation: there is significant light pollution here (even without the beam from the lighthouse ). The double glazing in the Stevenson Room is an inch thick, highly refractive/reflective and probably coated in something protective. And finally: that glorious green colour seen on the webcam is enhanced. Unfair, unfair.
Try again.
http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/
Wednesday night, and the forecasts were good: cold and clear, with minor magnetic activity for hours. Go online, wait for the webcam to show lots of green light on the horizon, rush outside holding hand up to shield out the airport lights (being careful not to fall over the edge of the terrace). And success – a brief green light over the north-east horizon followed by a gently waxing and waning glow like moonlight to the northwest for about an hour. And a shooting star.
Another tick on the list of Shetland Firsts.
