Well, where do we even start with that night. My neck is still sore now almost a week after a night spent gazing up, mouth open, in complete awe of the colourful show going on above and all around…
Solar cycle
In the landscape photography world, a large number of us have been eagerly following the news about the solar cycle, and how we are approaching the peak of it in the next year. This brings with it the chance of seeing the aurora not just over the UK, but across large swathes of the globe.
Back in 2023, I had been following a couple of Aurora Facebook groups, who were getting progressively more excited about an impending solar storm, so when alerts started to come through that evening, I hopped in the car and headed to Clevedon. It is a pretty light polluted town, however faces north across the Bristol Channel with little in the way of light pollution opposite. As soon as the sky turned dark, the aurora arrived, and I hopped around like a lunatic – in between firing off shots.
Unpredictable aurora
We had been promised an increasing frequency of displays – our sun, being a variable star, has an 11 year cycle of activity. When it gets closer to the peak during this time, more and more sunspots appear. One of these recent spots was equivalent in size to 10 Earths, and it began to fire off solar flares and a huge sequence of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) which were in the direction of Earth. These merged into one huge plasma ball, full of charged particles, ready to interact with Earth’s atmosphere.
Chatter in the same groups turned into a frenzy and across social media, astronomers, astrophotographers, photographers and everyone with an interest in it started sharing predictions. There is never a guarantee with the aurora – there are so many variables at play (and I’ll be the first to admit, I have absolutely no clue about it), however the experts I know and follow were very confident we could be in for a big show here. It helped a lot that the weather forecast across the UK was favourable, with very little cloud predicted.
Good conditions
The key to catching the aurora isn’t waiting until the last minute – it’s about gambling and getting out there. I wanted to get somewhere dark with a north facing direction. Even with a poor show, a good dark sky location could net a hint of it.

A good dark sky location
Having been down to Porlock Marsh fairly recently for a high tide, I had at the time looked at this as an option for the Northern Lights. The classic dead tree composition there faces more north westerly, however my experience with Clevedon last year told me that if it’s a good show, it’ll be a lot wider than that! I underestimated this just a smidge…
Travelling with my mate and fellow photographer, Adie – @thebristolnomad – we hurtled down, just in time to arrive after sunset. We missed a cracking high tide sunset, however we were more interested in the fact that any clouds forecast had seemingly vanished. It was looking very good, and our aurora apps were starting to show a lot of activity. A bunch of other photographers were already there, and as it turned out, we knew all of them already – @darylbakerphotography – @_pixchar – @danmc_imagery – @farmertorque
There was a thin crescent moon setting, and as the sky turned dark, we could just make out the first hint of green on the horizon. This slowly grew in strength as it got later. Job done, or so we thought.
The light show
At around 11pm, the group was gathered round, looking at something online. I was having a quick munch on something, and gazed upwards. I caught sight of giant tentacle-like streaks of light stretching upwards and over us, and a band of pale red was reaching around to the side. I can’t remember what I blurted out, but I definitely yelled something through my mouthful. It was an incredible and awe-inspiring moment as it dawned on us what we were witnessing. There was a lot of frenzied activity as everyone quickly hurtled for cameras, tinkered with settings and started firing away photos.
Wave after wave of increasingly brighter streaks encircled us. Not just to the north, but way over to the west, and across to the east, before reaching all the way around to the south. It was a full 360 degree light show, and we were in photography heaven. Amazing pillars of red, pink, orange, green, blue and so on would pulse across the sky. It was so strong that the pinks and reds were clearly visible to the naked eye, even the greens to a certain extent.
G5 storm
I spent time trying to nail down a couple of compositions I’d had in mind, however for one of the first times since taking up photography, I actually sat there and watched it all. We were witnessing the first G5 storm in over 20 years, Our phones started to buzz with activity, as other photographers and friends started witnessing it across the UK. Instagram and social media soon became awash with multi-coloured imagery.
We are still around a year away from the peak of the solar cycle – so we may see many more evenings like that one ahead. It’s time to get planning!
Did you see the show on the 10th May? If so, let me know below.
If you’re looking prints of the aurora, check out my print shop.
Did you catch the display on the 10th May? I’d love to hear your thoughts, let me know here