After nearly a month of heavy rain and wind we at last had warning of good conditions for an aurora over Doune. Unfortunately it was blowing 25 knots with heavy wintry showers coming through every few minutes, but nothing ventured .....
Not the sharpest picture I've ever taken, but the Olympus OM-D E5 coped pretty well in the conditions and a break in the clouds for just 5 minutes allowed me a few shots.
For anyone wanting to get shots of the aurora, the method is actually pretty simple.

1. keep an eye on websites such as the superb Aurora Services. for suitable conditions, and hope for clear skies
2. Set your camera up on a tripod. Facing North and away from as much light pollution from city lights as you can manage
3. Set everything to manual and preferably RAW capture, as this will allow you to adjust the sometimes extreme colours more easily.
4. Focus on infinity
5. Set the lens to max aperture ie f2.8 or f4
6. Adjust exposure to 15, 20 or 30 sec.
7. Adjust ISO to between 800 and 3200 and try a test shot. (The stronger the auruora, the lower the ISO.
8. Adjust ISO to get reasonable exposure.