I have long assumed the Sun to be a constant, always there, too bright to gaze at and sometimes hidden by clouds or because the Earth rotates or because I’m inside or underground perhaps. I believe that the presence of the Sun is implicit in pretty much everything I experience in life on Earth and I learned that the Earth itself is caught in the gravity well of the Sun and we all rotate in its orbit. There’s little I can do to influence the Sun and I take it largely for granted as a constant and the thought of it changing or one day no longer being there is one I doubt many of us give much real thought to as we go about our lives. Yet the Sun is itself in motion and is changing all the time and as well as the warmth and light and gravitational field it is changing. Aurora, like sunsets, are probably regarded by all humans as beautiful and enjoyed as a spectacle. For ages we had no way to explain them but wondered at them. We now have a way to explain them and this app even gives a way to align that explanation to their visibility. I don’t live somewhere where Aurora are ever seen but I have travelled to see them once. I like this app not so I know when to look up to see a spectacle but when an alert goes it reminds me to look up in my own mind; to lift my focus from whatever task seemed important to me and to wonder about my place in all this and the significance of it all. It’s like a cosmic Tibetan prayer bowl, a moment to be mindful and humble and grateful and appreciate how blessed I am and to consider how I am treating life around me in turn. Am I like the sun, unconditionally giving energy to those in my orbit? A moment to take stock, to pray, to day dream, to realise the universe doesn’t orbit around me and me alone.

I have had this app for almost a year now and unfortunately hadn’t had a chance to use it fully before until the recent G5 storm on Friday May 10th. Like most of the UK, I was out taking photos of the aurora and this app was invaluable during this time. I could easily check the levels of the geomagnetic storm on the main page, and the auroras location on the map, making it easy to decide when to move on to an area higher North. While I only made it to two spots before the sun began to rise again, I doubt I would have managed the second spot without this app helping me follow the storm. 10/10, would (and will) aurora hunt with this app again

Whilst this app does have its virtues, it’s biggest problem is that it informs you of aurora activity when it is too late. Telling me what is currently occurring isn’t good enough to go to a location to see it because by the time you you get there, the forecast has changed and aurora completed. There’s no forecast at play, which makes it a bit useless. It’s fun if you wish to see a livecam from the Shetland’s, but that’s it. The colour coding is also inaccurate. I’ve seen many red alerts on there, and it notifies you that the red alert means that the aurora is visible everywhere in the U.K., and this simply never true. It is never visible all over the U.K.– all one can really say is that it is visible in parts of Scotland & northern England. I’ve been attempting to chase the aurora for the last 6-7 years, but this app hasn’t really helped me in that regard. I guess this is just an app for someone purely interested in geomagnetic activity.

Just what I needed when I first got the app. It’s still a great app but a couple of years later I find that notifications have become sporadic and I feel that either there’s something I’m not doing right in the setup or that there’s something that could benefit from being tweaked by the developer? I really appreciate all the time and effort the developer put into it and I love the app and would continue to love it if it never evolved. I guess I’m trying to leave a very positive review whilst at the same time offering constructive feedback.