I am SO glad I signed up for this Astro-Alert newsletter, or I would have missed the auroral display last August.
Chances are good for some northern lights viewing tonight, as far south as Kansas, Missouri, northern California.
Here’s a link: http://www.spacew.com If that doesn’t work, here’s part of the text of the alert:
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A strong and developing complex sunspot group has produced multiple X-class solar flares over the last 36 hours - most of which appear to have also been associated with fairly high velocity Earth-directed coronal mass ejections. The first of these disturbances is expected to impact the Earth
late on 25 November or early on 26 November (UTC time). For observers in North America, begin watching for activity as soon as the skies get dark enough on the evening of 25 November.
There are a sufficient number of disturbances enroute to provide ample opportunity for widespread observations of auroral activity throughout many middle (and possibly even some low) latitude regions over the next several days. Additional major X-class flares and Earth-directed coronal mass ejections are a high probability over the next 48 hours as the active sunspot region continues to evolve.
OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: GOOD TO VERY GOOD
AURORAL ACTIVITY MAY BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM…
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO NORTHERN NEVADA TO UTAH TO NORTHERN COLORADO TO KANSAS TO MISSOURI TO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND KENTUCKY TO NORTHERN NORTH CAROLINA.
I get the newsletter from spaceweather and I love getting the aurora alerts. It get frustrating though when they predict aurora and I look up and see only clouds.
For anyone who doubts that sunspots affect weather, there has been a 1 to 1 correlation between potential auroras and cloudy skies here on the East Coast this year. It’s been pretty annoying.
The lights have been fabulous. I only got a couple glimpses though - I just bought Diablo II and am a little distracted …
I’ve seen mostly green and white shows, I’ve only seen the red maybe a dozen times. The most incredible display I saw when I was about eight - my mom (! you know it hadda be good) got me out of bed. I swear, it looked like those real powerful old searchlights (like the ones used for spotting incoming hostile aircraft) set just below the horizon, only in colour. Great sheets of color.
If anyone’s interested, I have a truly remarkable picture of the Aurora Borealis over Scout Lake, Yukon Territory, with Hale-Bopp to one side. I can scan it and send it to you, BUT you have to promise to never publish or post it w/o getting the appropriate permissions from the photographer . . .
Wish we got good views of the Perseids. Wrong area, and heavy clouds at that time for the last couple years. Missed the Leonids last year, too.
I stayed awake the whole night on the 25th (not unusual for me) and saw nothing. I was in & out of the house a lot, so I might of missed any aurora.
The best I’ve seen was in 93 or 94. I can’t remember the exact date, but I remember it was summer because I had to put sweatpants on so I could climb up on my garage roof without tearing up my legs. The whole sky was lit up with pulsating colors and they extended well into the southern sky.
** tisiphone **, I’d also love to see the picture. You can email me at flattum@spacestar.net. I won’t post or publish either.
I didn’t even open this thread when it first came out. Clear skies? Not for the last 18 months! (I exaggerate, but only slightly.)
Guess what? I woke up this morning to a beautiful display - not a lot of colors, but very vigorous. Apparently they had been going on since 8:30 last night.
I too recall that 93 or 94 was very colorful, blues and reds and dark greens. Most of the time we get that washed out yellow-green.
hey tisiphone, i think i bought that picture when i was in churchhill. (i’m checking the back of the photo now.) which was the only time that i saw the a.b. it’s a cloudy night here poss. of snow dusting. oh well.
it seems i have trimed off the part of the photo that told me where it is from. are you speaking of a greenish curtain with a orange red glow from the town below?
