A Comet From Peter's Village...

I took a walk over Peter's bridge and down to the river front there, to try and get a clear western horizon so that I could catch Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS...

Comet Tsuchinshan in the autumn twilight from Peter's Village...

This is an average of 10 x 10 second exposures: I could not convince myself that I could see it with my own unaided eyesight, though the head of comet could be seen in binoculars. 

I thought it would be good to make an effort to photograph it as it won't be coming back for another 80,000 years...

Halling Riverside....

 Some views from a sunny autumn day on the Halling riviera...

Mist clearing from Grey Pit lake (now called St. Andrews lake by the Redrow estates marketing folk...)

Grey Pit looking north-west

The River Medway from Halling riverside, looking south...

View towards Wouldham...

Looking north along the Medway...

St. John's at Halling...

The riverside path...

View across the river towards Wouldham...

View south down the Medway,,,

Rowan at Low Meadow....

Auroras Over Halling...

Just before midnight, the skies were lit by the brightest show of the Aurora Borealis that I personally have ever seen.  I rushed to grab a camera and managed to catch a few shots before they faded...

View north from my back garden, about 11pm

I had managed to photograph some aurorae back in May, but these were much brighter and I rather overexposed the shot. Rays of red light could be seen gently undulating, something I'd never seen before...

View north-east, about 11.30...

The bright show faded quite quickly. This picture shows the fading aurora against the background constellations of Auriga and Perseus. The Pleiades can be seen to the right...

Leicester University put their magnetometer readings online, giving some advance warning of auroral displays. This is the plot for the night of October 10/11th. It can be seen the auroras were on display all night, although they faded quite a bit after midnight.

The Sun's 13 year sun-spot cycle is now close to its maximum and sun-spot activity is expected to cause more bright auroras that can hopefully be seen from the south of England.