Scouting for Northern Lights

As the first half of this semester draws to a close, any excuse to avoid productivity is welcome. With a brain already on holiday, what better way to spend a Sunday night than in pursuit of the elusive Aurora Borealis (aka the Northern lights)?  Halfway into my reading that had me bored to tears, I suddenly received a text from my flatmate upstairs asking me if I wanted to go see the northern lights with her. ‘Let me put on my trousers’ was my response as I threw on my winter wear and met her in the kitchen.

Mind you, this definitely wasn’t our best thought out plan. One, we were both sick and almost suffering from cabin fever. Two we were so excited at the prospect of catching a glimpse of the northern lights that we really should have grabbed a proper camera. So onward we ran, up the slope and into town. Question was where should we go to see the lights? Posts on overheard at St Andrews were all about people who had seen the northern lights in places as varied as DRA, the pier, West Sands, East Sands and Anstruther. With West Sands being our nearest location but East Sands being the place where the most recent overheard post was, we were torn over where to head to.

What we expected to see last night

The more posts we saw, the more we realised that there was no time to lose. By the time we decided on heading over to West Sands, the sky was pitch black and the stars glimmered overhead. But no northern lights of course. We attempted to head in the direction of East Sands, but in our weakened state were unable to continue. Instead we head over to Dervish, ate the food of champions (burgers with fries) and headed back home, lamenting our indecisiveness and our lack of northern lights photos for our snapchat stories.

What I ended up having to settle for.