Purple Lights

Normally I would say this was a cracking aurora, but expectations were high during the afternoon due to a strong solar wind magnetic field, which was orientated southward through most of the afternoon. This led to a strong G3 geomagnetic storm for a time during the late afternoon and early evening, but the magnetic field switched into the north during the evening and killed off most of the aurora, with just a quiet arc visible by the time it was dark enough to see anything over Scotland. A brief southward stint around midnight was enough to lift activity enough to give an active burst during the early hours, with rays extending beyond Cassiopeia for a time.
Time lapse taken between 2348 and 0109 UTC, 2nd/3rd May 2024. Chapel of Garioch, aberdeenshire, Scotland.