Aurora 21 januari 2005.

Below : news from http://www.spaceweather.com/

19-01-2005: X-FLARE! Giant sunspot 720 unleashed another X-class solar flare this morning. The explosion did propel a coronal mass ejection into space--but not toward Earth.
20-01-2005: BIG BANG! Giant sunspot 720 erupted again today (Jan. 20th at 0700 GMT), unleashing a powerful X7-class solar flare. The blast hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space and sparked the strongest radiation storm since October 1989.
21-01-2005 17:00 UT : IMPACT! A coronal mass ejection swept past Earth earlier today and sparked a severe geomagnetic storm. Sky watchers across northern Europe spotted bright and colorful auroras. The storm is subsiding now, but it still has the potential to produce auroras tonight over northern US states like Maine and Minnesota

Northern lights on 21 januari 2005
On the evening of 21 januari I received some email alerts about the possibility of aurora (northern lights) visible from the Netherlands. But the weather wasn’t cooperative: heavy rain and hailshowers were blocking a good view on the heavens. Finaly some small spells were visible in northern direction. Almost immediately I noticed the sky is somewhat red, but at that time my eye’s are not adapted to the dark yet. With my Canon 10D combined with a Canon EF 2.8/15 mm fish eye lens I took a picture around 19:04 UT: clearly visible behind the clouds: aurora! Unfortunately, after this picture the sky clouded out. But after ten minutes clouds break and I took off to the Groevenbeekse Heide (a moor) near Ermelo.
During a clear spell of 20 minutes I did take some pictures of the aurora. It has faintened since I first spotted it. But in northwestern direction there was still some activity going on. After 20 minutes clouds and rainshowers moved in.
After a half hour of rainshowers sky cleared again en for the second time I took off to the moor. The sky in northern direction is coloured red and sometimes some lightpillars are visible in northwestern direction. But after a while activity ceased and a big rainshower moved in.
Around 21:05 UT I took a picture frome my home. A green arc is visible! So I took off for the third time to the moor. Luckely it is about five minutes biking to this location!
When I get there the green arc is brightening at that time. After a while the green arc weakend so I left to go home.
After checking the internet it became clear the magnetic storm was subsiding. So I go to sleep for three hours before leaving to my work. It was a interesting evening!

All pictures taken with a digital Canon 10D flex camera combined with an Canon EF 2.8/15 mm fish eye lens. Every picture is placed twice. I have de-fished all pictures and added these pictures after the original ones.

More info: http://www.dmsweb.org/