The Light Fantastic

Late on the evening of Thursday 10th October 2024 I was sat at my desk feeling very tired.It had been a busy day. The morning spent at a local hospital as my Mum needed to be checked out after a fall. Thankfully all was ok and nothing broken.

Since Tuesday the worlds media had gone crazy after a huge Solar Flare had erupted from the sun and was hurtling towards the Earth. When this Tsunami of energy reached our planets magnetic field it was predicated that the Northern Lights (aka the Aurora Borealis) was going to be amazing and visible from all over the UK.

Like many people I have installed the AuroraWatch app on my mobile phone and I had it set to alert when the solar activity was in the red levels - meaning that the Northern Lights would be most visible.

However being able to see the Northern Lights also depended on the weather. The skies would need to be pretty clear of cloud to be optimal.

When I looked out at the sky just after sunset on Thursday evening the skies above my house were thick with cloud. Despite seeing the AuroraWatch warnings I did not have much hope that the skies would be clear later that evening.

Part of my mind had switched off thinking about going out to see the Aurora.

So at 10 pm I finished watching a show on Netflix and casually checked Facebook and saw lots of posts of the Aurora! My mind started racing with excitement. I ran out of the house to look up to the sky. The clouds were clearing and I could not believe what I was seeing . The Aurora Borealis was visible from my street - that hint of purple showing. I raised my mobile phone up and looked at the camera app. The Northern Lights were showing all over the place.

I called my wife and daughter and pointed up at the sky and showed them the Aurora. Neither were as impressed as me :) and shivering from the cold night air went back into the house. I messaged my good friend Paul Joy wondering if he had realised that the Northern Lights were showing so well.

He replied back with a back of the camera photo of the Aurora in Pwll Du. I was incandescent with rage at that moment that he was already up there - without me ! ( All us photographers are like this when we think we are missing out- my wife thinks we are like a bunch of competitive kids). I was determined to join him ASAP. I even noticed my other friend and neighbour Rushy was also out at Llandegfedd taking great pictures.

I grabbed my camera kit and hit the road heading off Northwards to the wilds of the Blorenge Mountain and Pwll Du.

When I arrived at the Keepers Pond at the border between Torfaen and Monmouthshire there was cars parked all over the place and people stood looking up with cameras and mouths agape in awe. The sky was alive with what I call the "Light Fantastic". From what I could see with the naked eye it was the best I had ever witnessed.

Quickly I parked my car, set up my tripod and camera and started walking towards Pwll Du. The Keepers Pond was crowded with people and too many cars coming and going with their headlights on which tends to ruin long exposure pictures.

I marched off along the single track road to find my friend. Before me stretched a mile and a half of tarmac and panoramic views of the surrounding landscape and above them the starry heavens.

A walk under the Light Fantastic

There was some cloud, but this only served to enhance the amazing astronomical light display.

The colours were amazing. A mix of red, purple, yellow and greens. There was a great big band of green light that was dancing.

The sky was changing all the time. I started to jog, as I really did not want to miss a moment. Every now and then I would stop and take a couple of pictures. I kept my flash light handy - not to see in the dark - I have always had good night vision even with one eye - but I need the torch to warn drivers using the road so that they would see me walking on the road.

The Norther Lights above the Sugarloaf

Eventually I found Paul at the end of the road in Pwll Du. He was stood by a lonely tree gazing up at the heavens above in awe. He apologised for forgetting me in all the excitement and I gave him some stick and a lot of banter was to be had all night as a result.

Watching the show start.

The celestial display was changing all the time. The clouds were clearing in some parts of the sky, in others they were moving in. The Solar Activity was increasing and the Aurora Borealis was getting brighter , so much so you could see more and more with the naked eye ( Note the naked eye cannot see it anywhere near what the camera sensors detect!)

This was now my fourth time taking pictures of the Northern Lights in Gwent so I was more familiar now with the camera settings to use and also what shots that might work or not.

Where Paul and I were stood is a location we know every well and have spent many happy times not far from it taking photographs of Wheatears on the stone wall, watching a sunrise and gawping at the dragons breath cloud inversions that occur from time to time.

I thought that the lonely tree that stands in a field with an old barn that has the fantastic backdrop of Gilwern hill, Sugarloaf, Skirid and Blorenge Mountains would make a good center piece for a photograph of the Aurora.

I set up the tripod , adjusted the settings on my camera and then started taking pictures as the heavens went crazy.

The Lonely Tree at Pwll Du

The result was my favourite image from that night. 

At one point we were joined by two young ladies who had travelled all the way from Bristol to observe the Aurora. They were armed with just their mobile phones. It is often said that the best camera is the one that you have readily in your hand. You don' t always need the best for best cameras to take a good photograph.

I took some photographs of them for which they were grateful (that I have shared with them separately) and in turn, they showed me how to take a long exposure photograph using my iPhone, which I acknowledged  you learn something new every day!

As time moved on it was getting cold. Paul needed to get home at midnight so I was grateful of a lift back to my car from him to save me the long walk back to my car in wellies.

During the journey we saw several people gesticulating towards us and pointing up at the sky in excitement. I wondered weather they had just noticed the Aurora!

Paul dropped me off at my car and I waved him off. I did not get into my car, instead I made for the Keepers Pond which was a little quieter now.

As I approached the cold waters of the pond all I could hear was fellow photographers swearing in disbelief. My phone chimed and I looked at the AuroraWatch App alert - the disturbance level had gone through the roof! It was level 11 out of 10 :)

I set up my camera again and snapped away at the wondrous sight that was all around me. The skies were alive with movement and after taking a picture a kaleidoscope of colour.

A Mirror to the Heavens - The Keepers Pond

I love reflection shots and the Keepers Pond is fantastic for acting like a mirror to the heavens.

The Northern Lights danced like nothing I had ever seen before - it was amazing.

I honestly did not know which direction to looks. The solar disturbance was so strong there was amazing displays of colour at all points of the compass.

Canada Tips light show

Features of the land such as the old spoil heaps of the Canada tips and lamp-posts suddenly  became useful backdrops to amazing pictures of the dancing lights.

People always make good stooges and I enjoyed trying to capture some images of fellow photographers standing around the pond ( I was actually stood in the pond - my wellies came in very useful).

Photographers and the Northern Lights

It was at this point in time that I remembered the lesson I had received from the two girls from Bristol we had met about how to do the settings on my iPhone for night shots.

I set my iPhone up following their instructions and took a picture when the Northern Lights were at their most visible that night.

iPhone picture of the Northern Lights at their most active.

Things had now started to get a bit crazy at the Keepers. It was well past 1am but there was some cars turning up who's drivers appeared to be both scared of the dark as they parked up with headlights on full beam and then chose to rev their engines up and speed off like they were auditioning for a Mad Max movie. The whiff of cannabis was also pervading the air and I felt it was time to move on.

The night was young and I was too excited to sleep and also keen to try some other locations for a photoshoot whilst the Aurora remained visible.

At Garn Lakes a favourite location of mine as its very dark and one of my ancestral homes the Aurora was showing well.

On this occasion I aimed to take a more moody type of landscape shot using a local feature. I love water in my pictures so found that the overflow stream on the lower lake has a small waterfall that would be my focus of attention.

Garn Lakes

 Looking towards the Coity Mountain which is in directly the "wrong" direction for the Aurora normally I could make out lights dancing. The show was quite unbelievable.

The Northern Lights above the Coity

The next stop on my tour of Gwent under the Light Fantastic was Big Pit. Now this location is hard work in the dark to take astro photographs. The wheel house for the lift that goes down into the mine shaft has a very bright light on it that tends to cause havoc with whiting out sensitive camera lenses like the one I was using. I could see that the Northern Lights were showing all around the pit but the various security lights and wheelhouse light were just causing too much light disturbance.

However, I walked around front of the pit site and found that the light only shone in one direction and the rest was in shadow.

Big Pit and the Northern Lights

Now I could take a photograph of the pit where my ancestors worked with the Northern Lights behind it.

I was now starting to get the shivers. A damp coldness was seeping into my body despite wearing several layers of clothing.

I returned to my car and made my way down the valley towards my home. But before I went home there was time for just one more stop - Llandegfedd Lake.

Llandegfedd Lake and the Aurora.

Even this far south in Torfaen the lights remained visible. It was now 3 am and just me was stood on the dam wall gazing in awe at the sky

A big green and yellow band of light danced on the northern horizon.

I was buzzing with excitement . What a night it had been, absolutely fantastic.

The Technical Part

As I mentioned earlier in my blog this was not the first time ( and I hope it wont be my last) that I have been fortunate enough to capture images of the Northern Lights so I have had some time to experiment and learn what works or not with camera settings etc.

On this occasion I was using different camera equipment.

I had left my tried and testedNikon Z6 and Nikor 4 F4 24-70mm lens at home. Instead I swapped it for my Nikon D850 Camera ( aka The Brute- as its a beast of a camera) and had my astro lens attached - a Samyang F2.8 MF 14mm lens.

The Samyang lens is very sharp and designed for astro photography. I have used it for days shots as well and its had performed admirably at sunrise and sunset. The lens comes into its own in the darkness of the night. Coupled with the Nikon D850 which as a massive amount of pixel power its a great set up for astro work. Incredibly I had not used this combination before!

I was keen to see what damage I could do using this camera kit.

In terms of camera settings I used the below -

• Aperture - F2.8
• ISO - 3500
• White Balace - custom 3500k
• Shutters speed - varied between 3 to 15 seconds exposure time.
• Tripod and manual focus.

I found that the using a shorter exposure time helped to to capture the waves of light.

For post processing I used the following -

• Adobe Photoshop
• Luminar
• Main edits were - Saturation , Clarity and Vignetting.
• Topaz Denoise used to remove noise as the final part of my process flow.

I hope some of my readers were luck enough to get out and capture their own pictures as well as me.

Until the next time then - as more solar storms are predicted as the Sun is going through a particularly active phase of its lifecycle.

The path to Aurora. Pwll Du track to the mast and quarries.