Purple aurora

[Pantechnicon]

Purple aurora visible above the clouds London Essex. Anyone else see it?

[Smiler.]

Purple Aurora or Purple Ari?

[Pantechnicon]

Got a picture of it
It was constant in the same position visible through the clouds over Romford

Edited by Pantechnicon on Sunday 27th October 17:37

[FourWheelDrift]

"Blue and purple are also colours which are seen less frequently and again, they tend to appear when solar activity is high. In this case, the colours are caused by particles colliding with our atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less. At these heights, it is a reaction with Nitrogen that causes the Aurora to be tinged with purple or blue and most commonly, you will see these colours towards the lower parts of the display."

https://www.theaurorazone.com/about-the-aurora/the...

[motco]

Is there a railway nearby? Railtrack (or whomsoever) have a surveying train that emits a powerful blue/mauve beam of light into the sky. It caused a bit of a kerfuffle round here a year or so ago.
See here

[Simpo Two]

Pantechnicon said:

Got a picture of it... It was constant in the same position visible through the clouds over Romford

Could it be a thing called the moon?

[eharding]

Simpo Two said:

Pantechnicon said:

Got a picture of it... It was constant in the same position visible through the clouds over Romford

Could it be a thing called the moon?

Moonrise in Essex on the 26th was at roughly 04:50, setting at about 17:30 i.e. a moonless night. Would be interesting to know at what time the OP obtained his photo.

[MartG]

Very unlikely to be an aurora - way too bright, especially as far south as Romford, and stationary. Aurorae are usually far too dim to be seen through cloud.

[67Dino]

motco said:

Is there a railway nearby? Railtrack (or whomsoever) have a surveying train that emits a powerful blue/mauve beam of light into the sky. It caused a bit of a kerfuffle round here a year or so ago.
See here

Same train in Bristol, and news pic looks very similar...

[Pantechnicon]

I took the photo at 1.30 am I’m fairly sure it’s not the moon wrong place and all that
Does that train remain stationary ? as I observed it for over 1/2 hour I also agree that it’s unlikely to be an aurora so I suppose the train is the only possible explanation although the light seemed to be in the sky shining down there was no upward beam and as I say I watched for a while.

[Some Guy]

That blue looks suspiciously like 455nm blue solid state laser, which would correspond with the measuring system used by network rail. The colour is very distinctive and I am not aware of anything similar occuring naturally.

Edited by Some Guy on Thursday 7th November 18:18

[Pantechnicon]

Same place right now not moving, must be train drivers break ?

[Pantechnicon]

Just a thought why would they need to check the same piece of track so soon ?

[2fast748]

Somebody posted a pic on a local to me Facebook group with a purple sky and it turned out to be the lights farmers use in greenhouses to make plants grow.