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29thOct 2003 at 20.15hrsUT Early signs of an Aurora Borealis display with faint rays showing through the clouds

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21.15hrsUT on the 29thOct2003 After a frustrating hour waiting for the clouds to clear another display is visible to the NW

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At 22.23hrs a further larger display can be seen through the heavy cloud cover with rays to the North

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29th Oct 2003 at 23.20hrs this beautiful green Aurora Borealis zenith cascades over Royal Deeside near once the cloud cleared

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Cloud continues to be a problem but the display is visible through the gaps and is obviously growing in size

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At 23.22hrs the zenith is still dramatic through the clouds and is now viewed to the SE over Crooktree

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A couple of minutes later to the south the Aurora Borealis Corona is building and the cloud makes it even more fascinating

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By 23.27hrs further aurora activity is onstream to the West with rays developing in the NW and showing higher level activity in the red oxygen zone

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As the clouds clear the full beauty of the auroral zenith can be seen to the SE, high above Crooktree

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By 23.32hrs on the 29th Oct the Northern Lights are swirling majestically overhead and filling the southern skyline

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After and hour and half of total cloud cover, luck smiles on the righteous and a clear sky offers the full glory of this high level Aurora Corona once again

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Nearly 01.00hrsUT and the Corona hangs like a celestial umbrella above Crooktree looking eastwards towards Aberdeen

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Turn round and a full corona surrounds the viewer and this view is to the NW and bathes Royal Deeside with glorious lights and dancing rays

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Well into the 30th Oct 2003 at around two minutes past one in the morning, the coronal zenith appears to explode overhead in the southern night sky

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Swinging round to the North and this is the sort of awesome spectacle that makes all the long hours observing worthwhile

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01.04hrsUT and Orion gives us our southerly pointer as the "Merry Dancers" swing the celestial dance floor over Aberdeenshire

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Back to the South again and almost at a point where one thinks about just watching, not photographing, an Aurora Borealis such as this

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Five past one on the early morning of the 30th Oct 2003 and time to switch to the digital camera as the Corona shows no signs of abating

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At 22.15hrs on the evening of the 30th October in a miraculous 30min gap in the cloud clover a further Aurora Borealis Corona gets underway to the North West

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00.31hrsUT in the morning of the 31stOct2003 complete cloud cover cannot hide the huge Aurora event going on above and the red oxygen corona even penetrates the cloud