On this night Europe experienced a surprise auroral storm visible even in the cities such as at my location. The 'culprit' was active region 10720 that caused several strong X-class flare. On 20 January it produced the strongest flare that resulted in this geomagnetic storm. It also caused the hardest radiation storm in space since 1989. And all this while the Sun is well past solar maximum and expected to show little activity..
These photos were taking from the roof at Sterrenwacht Rijswijk, the local public observatory during a normal 'publieksavond'. The wind was too hard for the dome to go open but then we could treat the visitors to something you almost never seen in a bright illuminated Dutch sky: Aurora.
All images using a Nikon Coolpix 4500 camera WITHOUT tripod. Exposures 8 sec. Location Wassenaarse Slag to the north of The Hague.