The aurora (aurora polaris) is a geomagnetic light phenomenon in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. It is also known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) and the southern lights (aurora australis).

The aurora is caused by the solar wind. This solar wind is particularly strong during solar plasma cloud eruptions, which eject large quantities of electrically charged particles (ions and electrons, known as Coronal Mass Ejections) into space at speeds of 300 to 700 kilometres per second. The particles fly past Earth, but are captured by the magnetic field on the dark side of the Earth. Because the magnetic field lines cross and reconnect there, a strong gravitational pull is created for the particles back toward Earth, and they enter the atmosphere at the poles.

This creates the northern lights and the southern lights, respectively. The electrically charged particles from the sun contain a great deal of energy, which is transferred to oxygen and nitrogen atoms through collisions in the uppermost kilometres of the atmosphere.

Data captured using a ZWO ASI290MC with the standard ZWO fish-eye lens. The camera was attached to a tripod and place on the lower shutter of the dome, allowing it to smoothly rotate. The recording starts with the camera pointing south-west, then rotates towards the north.

Initially the a weak green proton arc can be seen south-west of the observatory (upper left at the start of the video), but halfway the recording in the north aurora becomes much stronger and is finally (the last 10 seconds of the video) combined with a SAR (Stable Auroral Red) arc all the way towards the zenith.

Exposure times between 2s and 3.5s at gain 350, captured using FireCapture and using FireCapture dark-function (median of 5 frames).