Tonight a big aurora outburst came around midnight with the local magnetometer going wild. As usual of late, the most intense activity with purple and red was in the early phase of the outburst and this I was unfortunately only able to capture in front of the not-so-photogenic garage. Later on, green rays appeared in plenty both in the south and in the north.

Photo details: Nikon D3, Nikkor 20mm, f/2,8, ISO 800, 3-13 sec exposures.

A great place to see auroras is from Earth orbit. Last night, the US military's DMSP-18 weather satellite photographed the action over northern Europe. "This night-time image shows a band of aurora borealis north of Norway at 1817 GMT on Feb. 1st," says Paul McCrone, who processed the image at the US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey, California.

I had no idea where I should take a photos! The aurora was everywhere, pink, yellow, green. That was a really good show!

Photo details: Nikon D40, ISO400, F3.5, various times.

The almost full Moon of tonight and a thin thin veil of Cirrostratus didn`t stop the auroras from putting up a wonderful show - one that I am happy I saw before I slipped on the ice and slowly started to limp homewards again.

Photo details: Nikon D3, Nikkor 20mm, ISO 1000, 6 sec exposure