Hi, my name is Graeme Whipps and this is my website on Aurora photography and other natural sky phenomenon. This is a collection of my work over the years, just click on the galleries tab to view the pictures. Please leave a message in my guest book with a description of what you thought of the site. Feel free to contact me at the email address below. The live webcam will be configured for Noctilucent cloud in the Summer, and aurora during significant displays in the winter.

My passion for the aurora started back in 1986, as a meteorological observer at Machrihanish airfield, where conditions were good, with dark skies, and a reasonable number of clear nights. I have seen many aurora displays, mostly around the solar maximum in 1989-1991, and on moving to Shetland for just over a year in 2003/2004.

Most pictures taken between 1988 and 2001 were taken using an SLR camera on 400 ASA slide film, and exposure times between 15 and 45 seconds. The images from 1993 and 2001 are copied from photos, and the colours are not as accurate.

In 2002 I switched to digital photography, using a Cannon Powershot A40 camera, which was one of the first lower budget digital cameras with the facility to make 15 second exposures. The early images from Shetland were taken at 400 ASA equivalent, with exposure times in the range 7-15 secs, thus the grainy appearance. The rest of the images are less grainy, taken at 200 ASA, with exposure times 10-15 secs. This was possible due to brightness of the aurora. In 2005 I upgraded to a Canon 300D, which with a 6 megapixel ccd, produces much higher quality images. Most of the later images were taken at 400 ASA, f1.8, with exposure times between 15 and 30 seconds.

I now live near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, and am looking forward to the next solar maximum, with more active displays in the next few years.

All images copyright of Graeme Whipps ©.

graeme-whipps@o2.co.uk