The Northern Lights

I realise I haven’t written up my eclipse notes on here, and I will soon. It’s just that I need time to do it right, such was the utter splendidity of the whole trip. But I’ll put a picture up here of a little eclipse trip post-script that was a great little extra experience. The Northern Lights!
Well, I say Northern Lights, but all I really saw was a light haze in the sky on the horizon as we flew back from the States on the night of Tues 22nd August. The penny didn’t drop that it was the Aurora, till I realised that Ursa Major was right overhead and Polaris marked the brightest spot. Other astronomers on the same trip, on a different plane (heading for Manchester and not Heathrow), saw curtains of light, which I didn’t see. I can only assume their extra few degrees Latitude enabled them to get a better view. Most people were asleep on my flight, but I did get a few other astronomers to sit in my window seat and confirm the sighting.
Luckily I had my SLR with me, and took a 20 second exposure, which shows the plane’s wing, and reveals the colours. My first aurora photograph! I was most pleased!