All-sky operations started with night time thunder storm

Last night was first observation night with the camera capable to observe the Northern Lights at SGO site station. The observation time is about 4 hours. Instead of the Northern Lights we captured lightning strokes, which is really rare in Sodankylä this time of year when the nights are dark. Past couple weeks has been warmest weeks of the past summer. This ended with cold front travelling over Sodankylä forming heavy thunder shower. The long exposure allowed multiple lightnings in the same frame. The present solar wind conditions provides good change to capture the Northern Lights in the coming night! Other SGO imagers are now in calibration and will be in operation after calibration.

Lightning strikes in UCL Colour image at SGO.