Aurora at Trwyn Du lighthouse, Anglesey…a year ago already!
A year to the day I was fortunate enough to photograph the best display of the Northern Lights (Aurora) that the Uk has seen so far. I’d seen a couple of websites a day or two previous suggesting very strong activity geomagnetic activity and the potential of a good aurora display and when my phone app, the excellent Glendale Aurora app, sent me a notification in the evening of the 10th May 2024 I had to go out with the camera and take a chance photographing what would potentially be a very strong aurora.
I set off around 9pm and headed down the North Wales coast to Llanfairfechan, quite ofetn a good spot to photograph the Northern lights with good, clear views to the North. When I arrived the promenade was already busy with photographers, a line of tripods met me so I joined the group, quickly setup my Nikon D850 with the 24-70 F2.8 lens and pointed it to the Northern sky….and wow, the aurora was already active with a beautiful green light dancing across a wide part of the sky. I quickly decided I needed to head to Penmon Point (Trwyn Du) on Anglesey which is a mecca for night sky photography in North Wales.
Arriving at Penmon was a little crazy, obviously everyone had seen the news and cars were everywhere along the single track road to the lighthouse. I decided driving wasn’t an option so I parked up at Penmon Priory and headed off on foot towards the lighthouse, it was 11.30pm by this time. When I reached the coastline there were people everywhere, it looked like getting a good aurora photo was going to be a challenge so I walked to the quietest part I could find and setup the camera for a first test shot. The aurora colours were beautiful, the greens of earlier at Llanfairfechan had transformed into an entire rainbow of colour, the camera picked out pink, red, yellow, blue, orange, green…amazing, almost every colour you could hope for an even better distinct columns filled the night sky.
My first viewpoint wasn’t the best but fortunately as midnight passed the crowds pretty much disappeared and just a few keen photographers were left so I moved much closer to penmon lighthouse to get a better composition, a people free one too now thankfully. This viewpoint was where I’d stay until around 2.30am taking a series of aurora photos and the Northern lights fluctuated over the next hour or so. I took quite a few photos of this amazing aurora display but I’m just posting my favourite of that unforgettable evening of astro photography on Anglesey, a rainbow of columns over Penmon lighthouse, this may well be the best view of the Northern lights I’m ever likely to photograph in North Wales, although obviously I hope not!
