This camera monitors the sky pointing North every night to look for the aurora borealis visible from Sidmouth. When the Sun is near the maximum of its activity cycle (as it will be in 2024 and 2025) there is an increased chance of seeing the aurora, which will typically be visible as red streaks low in the sky. The light is produced as charged particles from the Sun excite the atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere of the Earth.

This is the live image from the aurora camera – note the timestamp does not use daylight savings time.

Last night’s time-lapse video

Previous aurora detections from the camera

You can learn more about how the aurora are made in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MI3YDGgtN4