After several attempts of chasing a Peak District aurora I was finally rewarded on Friday night. With a predicted show I initially went up onto the top of Bamford Edge for the sunset with the plan of hanging around a few hours till it was dark enough to see if we could capture it from here, I did the sunset and was waiting for darkness but abandoned this idea due to strong winds and sub zero temperatures as I were getting really cold so decided to drop down onto Ladybower to see what it was like from there. I called in at Ladybower to find a good number of photographers lined up along its length so plan C had me heading over to the Derwent Dam which is lined up facing north and with the moon 88% full behind me was illuminating the area perfectly (and not another soul to be seen). Imagine my delight when it started to show in the back of the camera and had a few minutes getting our images before it fading away, I stayed for another hour shooting star trails while seeing if it would reappear and didn’t see it again but was more than happy to go away with a few shots in the bag.

Photographer: Stephen Elliott