What started off as a typical night to see if I could get a few shots of the Milky Way turned out to be a totally mind blowing adventure.

I work near Harrogate and live in Greater Manchester and every day I have to drive 50 miles or so to work on the A59. I pass by Skipton and Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales.

I love this drive because it allows me to indulge in my passion for photography.

I have taken lots of photos over the last 9 months working up there including wildlife such as Owls and other birds of prey, landscape pictures with lakes and hills and forests. Also, my main passion is for Landscape/astrophotography.

There is nothing I like better than planning a composition with hills or trees silhouetted against the Milky Way or Orion constellation.

In fact the Yorkshire Dales is one of the top sites in the UK for dark skies. Not much light pollution!

So while my work colleagues complain about the distance to get to work, I am enjoying every minute of it.

So back to last Tuesday evening I checked the weather and noticed that after all the recent rain that the forecast was predicting clear skies that night, through to the next afternoon.

This was a moment of relief because I had not been able to take any Milky Way shots for a while.

So I started planning my shots, looking on maps and finding a good location to set up and the plan was to leave very early...insanely early!!

I planned to leave at 3am.

I have a great app on my phone called "aurora watch" and just as I was going to sleep a message came through and got my attention.

There were 3 alerts that day and each one was getting more significant. So I thought "Allo!!!"

I had never managed to catch the Aurora before now and had lots of failed attempts but I thought what the hell, I am going up there anyway so there is a slight chance I might see something.

So I changed my alarm to 01.30, that allows me to get up there by 02.30 or so.

So I left the house very early at 01.45 or so and drove up to my favourite spot for astrophotography.

While I was driving up there I kept checking out the window to see if the stars were still visible. I have had so many times when I got all the way up there and it had clouded over and ended up a waste of a night and needed sleep.

When I checked out the window for stars I noticed some strange glow a few times and was thinking it looked like light pollution from a nearby town. But, there was no town in that direction and I had never seen light pollution coming from that area before. I still hadn't linked it to the Aurora. Maybe I was still just waking up.

So I didnt think much of it and continued on my journey.

Anyway, I got to my planned spot and parked up.

I quickly jumped out and went around to the boot and started getting my tripod setup and the car started moving away from me. I panicked a bit as I was on rough ground and I knew there was a steep ditch 30 to 40 meters ahead.

I ran after the car and quickly jumped in and slammed on the brake. Then repositioned the car and sat for a minute to calm myself down. I thought I had set the handbrake and left it in gear but with my excitement I must have forgot!

This night might have had a different outcome if I didn't stop the car. I had a vision of a photo with a silhouette of the back end of my car sticking up in the air and the Milky Way floating above it.

Would have made an interesting photograph but not the scene I had in mind.

I set up the camera and tripod, then there was this glow again to the north. I was pointing the camera due west for the Milky way and set the exposure for 20 seconds after focusing.

This was a test shot to see if it was in focus properly.

When I checked the image, OMG!!! I had definitely captured the Milky Way but also this rainbow of colours to the right of it.

I knew straight away what this was. Its the Aurora Boriallis.

This was an event that happened earlier, probably 6-10 hours before when one of the sunspots on the surface of the Sun erupted causing a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) These highly charged particles come hurtling through space and arrive at Earth and our Earth's protective magnetic field deflects these particles and we see the Aurora or as its known in the Northern Hemisphere the NORTHERN LIGHTS. In the southern hemisphere we also get the SOUTHERN LIGHTS or Aurora Australis.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing here. I then positioned the camera due north to capture as many shots as I could before this phenomena disappears.

I even got myself in a few shots just because!

Then I focused on the more serious shots to catch those Amazing colours and streaks of particles. There were also meteors, I counted at least 6 that I saw that night.

I spent 2-3 hours here positioning and re-positioning the camera and taking more shots. In total, I took around 120 photos. I still have not even edited them yet.

This Aurora lasted about 3 hours that I know of.

By the time of the approaching dawn it had gone completely. But while it lasted, it was an unbelievable event. It was like a spiritual experience in itself.

Every time I clicked the camera shutter, the colours had changed and the streams of particles had moved.

I packed up my equipment at 6am and started heading towards my day job feeling very happy with how the night unfolded. Successful night with stars and Auroras. I had to post some photos on Facebook.

Later that day I was at work and got a call from BBC Radio York, asking me to tell them about the night on live radio. That was awesome too!

I don't think I will ever forget that night, it really was the Night of the Aurora!!!

Danny

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