Embleton Aurora Webcam – Northern Sky Over Northumberland

The Embleton Aurora Webcam looks north from the village of Embleton, on the Northumberland coast of England, across rough ground to the gable end and chimney stacks of an old ruined stone cottage, with a tall conifer standing on a bank of scrub to the left. Most of the frame is open sky, and that is the point. Northumberland Astro runs the camera around the clock so that on a clear, dark night anyone can check whether the northern lights are showing above the ruin. By day it simply tracks the cloud. A second tab switches to the operator’s Meteor Cam, a wide-angle camera at Embleton that faces south-east over trees and a line of rooftops, set up for watching the stars and catching meteors.

About Embleton and Its Sky Cameras

Embleton is a village and civil parish about 0.8 kilometers (0.5 miles) inland from Embleton Bay, a sandy North Sea beach backed by dunes. The parish, which also takes in Christon Bank, counted 672 residents at the 2011 census. The ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle stand at the southern end of the bay, about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) east-south-east of the village, and the whole shoreline lies within the Northumberland Coast National Landscape, designated in 1958 and running for 64 kilometers (40 miles) from Berwick-upon-Tweed to the River Coquet estuary.

Northumberland Astro is an astronomy website devoted to the dark skies of the county. Its author first saw the northern lights in Northumberland in 2008, and aurora hunting grew from there into astrophotography. The aurora camera faces north, and the operator’s own description is modest about the odds: on a clear dark night, you may be lucky enough to see the northern lights dancing above the old ruined cottage. Both are Annke NC800 cameras, and Embleton sits at about 55 degrees north.

In daylight the north view is mostly sky. The ruined cottage fills the lower right corner, its rough stonework edged with paler dressed stone and a red warning sign on the wall, while the conifer rises on the left above scrub and bare earth. The Meteor Cam’s frame is even more open. A low horizon of bushes, bare trees and a grassy slope runs along the bottom, with a row of red-roofed houses near the middle and a stone house among the trees on the right. Both streams carry a date and time stamp in the bottom left corner.

Weather and Climate in Embleton

The nearest Met Office station is at Boulmer, about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) down the coast, and its 1991 to 2020 averages describe a cool, maritime climate. January days average 7.3°C (45°F) with nights around 2.0°C (36°F), while July highs reach 18.7°C (66°F) with nights near 11.4°C (53°F). About 708 millimeters (27.9 inches) of rain falls in a typical year, spread fairly evenly, and November is the wettest month at 81 millimeters (3.2 inches). Sunshine swings hard with the seasons: May averages about 210 hours, December only about 58, so gray winter skies are a common sight on both cameras.

For a sky camera, darkness matters more than temperature. Around the winter solstice the sun rises at about 8:30 am and sets at about 3:40 pm at Embleton, leaving roughly seven hours of daylight and more than 12 hours of fully dark sky, so the long nights of late autumn and winter give the aurora camera the most hours to work with when the cloud breaks. Summer is the opposite. The operator notes that at 55 degrees north the sky never gets fully dark in June and July, with continuous twilight through the night. That light is too bright for the aurora, but it gives the best conditions for spotting noctilucent clouds.

Things to Do Near Embleton

The classic walk from the village runs down to Embleton Bay and along the sand to Dunstanburgh Castle. Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, built it between 1313 and 1322 on the site of an Iron Age fort, and its curtain walls enclose 4.03 hectares (9.96 acres), making it the largest castle in Northumberland. The ruin is owned by the National Trust and run by English Heritage. Dunstanburgh Castle Golf Course, an 18-hole course that opened in 1900, sits near the beach, and the fishing village of Craster lies about 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) south-east of Embleton, beyond the castle.

Back in the village, the Church of the Holy Trinity has historic ties to Merton College, Oxford, and Embleton Tower beside it is a pele tower that served as the vicarage until 1974. Alnwick Castle is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the south-west, and the harbor at Seahouses is about the same distance north. If you want to stargaze in person, Northumberland Astro’s advice is to get away from artificial light and town sky glow, wait for a clear night and, for the aurora or the Milky Way, pick one without the Moon.

Beğenebileceğiniz Benzer Web Kameraları

More cameras along this coast and under northern skies:

• Seahouses Limanı Web Kamerası
• Lindisfarne Castle Webcam
• Abisko Web Kamerası

Sıkça Sorulan Sorular

Where is the Embleton Aurora Webcam located?

The camera is at Embleton, a coastal village in Northumberland in north-east England. Embleton Bay is about 0.8 kilometers (0.5 miles) from the village, and Alnwick Castle is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the south-west.

What can you see on the Embleton Aurora Webcam?

The main view looks north over a ruined stone cottage and a tall conifer to a wide stretch of sky. The Meteor Cam tab faces south-east across even more sky, with trees and a few houses along the horizon.

Can you see the northern lights from Embleton?

Sometimes. On clear, dark nights when the aurora reaches far enough south, it can show up on the north-facing camera. Cloud, moonlight and the bright summer nights all get in the way, so the operator describes a sighting as a matter of luck.

Why does the sky never get dark on the Embleton webcam in June?

At about 55 degrees north, Embleton has continuous twilight through the night in June and July. The aurora is too faint to see against it, but these are the best nights to look for noctilucent clouds.

How can you tell if the northern lights will reach Northumberland?

Northumberland Astro points to two tools: the NOAA aurora forecast map, which shows how far south the aurora is reaching, and real-time solar wind data from the ACE satellite. The key reading is the Bz value, which has to swing south for aurora activity to occur.

When is the best time to watch for meteors over Embleton?

Any clear, moonless night can bring a meteor across the south-east view, but the big annual showers are the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December. The long December nights give the Meteor Cam far more dark hours than summer does.

What is the weather like in Embleton?

Cool and changeable. Winter days average around 7°C (45°F) and summer days around 19°C (66°F), with rain in every season and plenty of overcast winter skies.

Source: Northumberland Astro