November 08, 2004

The NOAA POES Satellite has it on good authority that, living in the right areas (at this moment, North America), you might see the northern lights if you go outside and look up tonight. City lights might be an issue, but I managed to see a few faint streaks twitching in the sky, through Minneapolis/St. Paul's city lights. But hey, even people as far south as Utah can see them, as reported on Spaceweather.com .
posted by alcarilinque 20 years ago
  • I read somewhere that the sun is spitting out more energy, which is why we're seeing auroras further and further south, of late.
  • Here I sit in Idaho, and it's so dang foggy here in the desert that I can't even see the back yard light. Go figger. That said, we drove up north and rode ten miles of the Weiser River Rail Trail out of Council, and had a lovely day in the sunshine. Then drove back and down into fog. Can't really complain. It was a good day. But I really really wanna see the NL
  • From experience, that 1st link is pretty accurate and useful. When it is very red over you, you should have a pretty serious show going on. These should blow your mind: pic 1 and pic 2 Both taken last fall in Seattle. You might recognize the train bridge from the story of the student that got hassled by the nsa or fbi or something for taking pictures of it. I dont know what the map showed at the time of these pictures but I'm sure seattle was pretty deep in the red. It followed a week or so of lesser, but still cool shows. It was when we had 2 unusually ginourmous sun spots within a week or so. Please don't go telling everyone about these, they are on my own server at home. Thanks.
  • Hectorinwa: I remember that week. As for the pictures, that's pretty nice colour for the city. How long was the exposure though? Please don't go telling everyone about these, they are on my own server at home. Thanks. Oops, you just posted them on monkeyfilter ;)
  • Hectorinwa - if you have the ability, you could shrink them to make them smaller, since they are already bigger than my screen. I do have a small screen, but 1/2 the display size you have would still give a good view. I use Maxis Fireworks to edit photos - they have a good feature that lets you adjust the datasize of the jpeg as well as the display. I generally go for about 5x7" display, and about 30-100kb datasize. Very beautiful.
  • I wish I could photograph it for y'all. It's a big green slowly moving curtain of light. It's only the second time I've seen them. (I'm in the western Chicago suburbs). Beautiful show. A neighbor, a fellow ham radio operator called me up to tell me. Usually when an aurora is active, radio bands, such as 6m (50 Mhz) become very active. So far, I hear a Pennsylvania station calling CQ (calling any station) in morse code on 50.1015 MHz, but not much else. My girlfriend in Ann Arbor 270 miles east can see them. My brother 270 miles south cannot.
  • i think those were both 60 second exposures. either that or 1:30. i will ask my roommate when he gets home, he took 'em. i could make them smaller, but then those of you out there with higher rez screens couldn't use them as desktop backgrounds ;-)
  • I saw them here in Iowa City. At first I thought they were clouds, but then I realized clouds don't glow green. I hadn't seen aurora my whole life and now I've seen them twice in one year.
  • It's cleared up here in Toronto, but I think I missed them. There might be some glow in the north, but it's just as likely the usual light pollution. On the other hand, Orion and the Pleiades were pretty nice before I ran back inside.
  • It is a gorgeous sky outside tonight, clear with lots of good star gazing. There is a faint blue/green glow over the northern horizon. I have never seen this before at my location. I don't know if it is the Northern Lights or not, but it is a beautiful sky tonight.
  • I was wrong. 30 second exposure on both of those shots.
  • Too cloudy here tonight - gone back to typical west coast weather. Seen them before when I lived up North, whole sky was covered. Looked like the edge of a folded blanket ... all these streaks of colour bending, twisting and folding in on itself. Quite the site. Hectorinwa could load them up to flickr (can give them a creative commons license) and post to the mofi group there.
  • I saw them tonight (in NH). It was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but they looked something similar to this.
  • I'm in South Dakota and I took 157 (count 'em, 157!) 30 second exposures of the northen lights last night (which would be Nov 7th). Damn fine display by nature. I'd self post a link of some of them, but, well, you know how people frown upon that. At the peak of the display the lights were about 15 degrees to the south over me. Very strong presence, lots of great shades of read (and some blues/purples showing up in the long exposures). At one point there were 'waves' of light moving through right over top of me. It was intense enough to be a psuedo-religious experience. =) Quite amazing.
  • damme! /me gnashes teeth
  • killThisKid, you should post the pictures.
  • Saw them last night (Ann Arbor, MI), got a little film of it. I've never seen it before. It was amazing.
  • Favorite way to see 'em is from the middle of a field, all alone by yourself. Just sit and watch the Eerie Folk fingering the curtain from the other side.
  • Bees: Ach! Eerie Folk fingerprints on the curtains and crayon marks on the Celestial tables. Somebody spank those kids. Killthiskid: post a link already, willya! *pouts with jealousy 'cause it will be foggy again tonight
  • Luck was on our side tonight, sky is completely clear. So will have to reassess my initial impression from when I was a teen. New impression: W O W The whole sky is dancing with light green bands of 'smoke' while the north is glowing green. I agree beeswacky middle of a feild by yourself is an excellent way to view celestial events. I had to settle for the roof of my house tonight.
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