How to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights in Irish skies tonight

Mon, 27 Feb, 2023 - 18:55

Sally Gorman

The Northern Lights look set to make an even bigger, brighter appearance across Irish skies tonight - if weather conditions allow.

That is according to Astronomy Ireland Editor, David Moore, who says "if the predictions are correct, then we expect tonight to be the big event. Last night was just the prequel, the calm before the storm," he said.

The mesmersing green and red glow lit up the skies in almost every corner of the country on Sunday night from Donegal, to Sligo, Carlow, Dublin and Tipperary too, with social media users posting some astonishing pictures online.

Mr Moore has advised those hoping to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon tonight to "find somewhere with a clear north horizon after sunset." "You don't want trees, you don't want buildings, you don't want mountains," he said.

“Last night, I drove up to a place where there's a big field and it looks out over the distance, the trees are so far away that they barely stick up. You should at least see an arc of light low in the north, and if the display picks up as expected this could move much higher in the sky."

He has also encouraged anyone living in a city to "get out" into the countryside for a better view.

He explained that those living in Donegal and Mayo are lucky enough to glimpse the Northern Lights more often than the rest of us, because "they don't have any towns or cities over the ocean to their north, they're guaranteed a dark sky at night."

Whilst Mr Moore has his fingers crossed for another spectacle, he has warned that these predictions are not always guaranteed.

He said: "Sometimes we can predict aurora and nothing happens and sometimes we don't predict it and it does happen, but more than 50% of the time we get it right, so we are really crossing our fingers for tonight."

Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather hopes that cloud cover won't spoil the show.

He said: "Trying to find clear skies tonight will be tricky but if they do occur, then you'll want to be away from bright city lights and look north from about 9pm.

If you're trying to capture the Aurora Borealis on camera he advises that "long exposure will give you the best chance."

Mr O'Reilly said that standard smartphones even have this feature now. He also recommends using a tripod to keep your phone or camera steady in order to capture the magic.

This rare appearance of the Northern Lights in Ireland is being caused by radiation coming from the Sun.

According to Mr Moore: "Explosions on the Sun have hurled billions of tonnes of radiation towards the Earth and our planet's magnetic field has directed it to the north and south poles where it collides harmlessly with the upper atmosphere.

"This solar radiation makes the Earth's upper atmosphere glow in a process similar to what goes on in flourescent light tubes, but on a scale of thousands of kilometres."

Astronomy Ireland had an inkling that Irish skies would be lit up this week and even predicted the light show on their social media channels on Sunday.

Mr Moore said: "We could see it happening and we knew then that we had about two days before it arrived here. So yesterday [Sunday], we were able to tell people, 'there's going to be a strong display tonight' and sure enough there was.

"In Ireland, it [Aurora Borealis] probably happens 1% of the time that it happens up in the polar regions, they get it almost every night, we only get it a few times a year."

You can follow Astronomy Ireland on Facebook and Twitter for further aurora alerts and updates.

Northern Lights: Stunning green and red display brightens Irish sky