my first Northern Lights

East Lothian, 10 October

I hadn’t planned on sharing these photos here, having posted on Instagram at the time. After all, this wasn’t a walk or a trip or adventure, but it was a first: my first experience of the aurora borealis.

It started with a DM from a friend on Instagram (who captured these incredible photos). ‘It’s amber alert again for the Northern Lights,’ she wrote. ‘Check with your camera to see if you can see them.’ So I headed into the back garden and gazed up at the sky. Nothing. I messaged back to say there was no sign, and she replied: ‘You can’t see it with the naked eye.’ I went outside again and pointed my iPhone up, into the darkness, and the sky was glowing pink and red.

It was after 10pm by this point. In an ideal world (that didn’t involve tiredness and an early start for work the next day for Richard) we’d have driven down the coast to Belhaven beach or Yellowcraig, to experience this sight without the surrounding light pollution. Or, in a really ideal world, I’d be able to drive and would have headed down the coast myself, leaving Richard and Raf to go to bed. But as neither option was available, I walked to our local beach, searching for darker skies.

On one hand, as I didn’t see any of these colours with my own eyes, I don’t feel as if I’ve really experienced the Northern Lights, but it was incredible to be standing here on the shore, photographing the sky in the darkness, and then to see these colours reveal themselves on my screen. This magic of light happening just above me, yet invisible.

I was also enjoying these ‘UFOs’. We’re under a flight path on this section of the Firth of Forth, so I was waiting for planes to fly over and curve left over the water, heading towards Edinburgh Airport. The last photo below is probably my favourite, as this does look like an orb of light hovering in the sky, assessing life forms below.

Musselburgh, East Lothian, 10 October 2024.

#northernlights #auroraborealis #eastlothian #firthofforth #scotland