Keep looking up, you never know what you may see

I have emailed this to some of you out there in cyberworld, but I thought I'd share this with everyone. Leonard, I know this doesn't have anything to do with C/L or planes, but I hope you'll post this anyhow.

Some of you may know about the recent solar activity there has been. Besides possibly disrupting communications, it provides the best light show you have ever seen. I was lucky enough to capture my first aurora last Thursday night from my ver light polluted backyard in New Jersey. It is very rare to see the northern light this far south, but due to the intensity of the recent solar flares they have been seen as far south as New Mexico.

Most people are familiar with the green variety, but when a high intensity solar flare occurs, you see what I captured below. The pics are reduced greatly for speed of loading, enjoy.

Thanks,

nice shots.

I too got some good pictures. On Thursday, it peaked at about 750pm ET. I used 800 speed kodak film, 28mm f3.5 lens and found that some pictures which had exposures of about 2-3 minutes were overexposed! Still, I had some very nice ones that were 30 seconds-1 minute. I have seen many aurorae before but this was the second best. November 5 2001 was more impressive but not nearly as beautiful. It rolled in like a storm, though. very violent seeming.

This one Thursday appeared as a sharp red dagger in the east and moved into the high north, appearing red with vertical white bands that were amazing. Wednesday there was a less bright but very nice green band with a vertical red pillar out of it in the northeast. I hate the things, though. They are creepy as heck!

I used my Olympus Digital Camera on a tripod, of course- These were 16 second exposures, at f 2.8 and I think the speed was only set to 100, but I forgot to check (due to my excitement). It was very intense and very high up, I'd venture to say the highest point was well over 45%. We have a small mountain behind us which blocked part of my view.

I'm going to try the meteor shower later this month, hopefull it will be as incredible as last years show.

I will try to scan mine later this week and post them.

Isn't that the normal glow from all the radioactivity in New Jersey?

Just kidding, I grew up there}>

I bet Old Sourdough is getting quite a show up in beercan cove!

Bummer. Minnesota has been mostly overcast 24/7 since before the storm started. The Northern Lights are a standard winter attraction in northern MN.

Yeah, same here. I know what I'd see tonight...

I bet Old Sourdough is getting quite a show up in beercan
cove!

Curt
===========================
You'd win that bet, Curt. While we do see the Aurora quite regularly compared to you folks in the lower lattitudes, these were amazing. They were a multi-hued, from the color of Mary's picture to blues greens and yellows, curtain rising and cascading all over the heavens. I took no pictures, unfortunately.

Aurora Borealis/Australis fans, rejoice. There were three more significant X-Ray events with coronal mass expulsions on Sunday. So along about tomorrow night, we might get some more good shows.

>coronal mass expulsions
>on Sunday...
> Brett

...the natural consequence of excess ingestion of Mexican beer on Saturday......

WOW!! Didn't even think to go out looking, you can bet I will tonight and tomorrow!

I'd never seen the lights till one day I was in the cockpit of a Lockheed L1011 on a very late ATL to LAX flight. Had the best show ever! We were up in the mid 30's altitude wise and very much in the blackness of the middle of nowhere between TX and CA, the show went on for the better part of an hour, maybe more.

Was ashamed no one in the passenger seats could see, and with how things are these days, it wasn't worth the risk of about 5 mad customers to turn the plane (no problem air traffic wise), make an announcement and let the other 300 or so see a really unique event from a really unique perspective.

We did manage to rotate all 9 flight attentants up there for a looksee.

Thanks for the heads up!

We've got a clear night this evening, I'm going out every 15 minutes or so. There may be another great light show over the next day or two, but who knows. Usually it occurs during about 11:00pm to 12:00 am UT. My occurence was about 7:20 till about 7:50pm. They say the aurora change every two hours, but me thinks down here it gets swallowed up faster than that. Must be Ruts Hut, or Exxon. Refined hot dogs, refined oil, put the two together and you've got a Rut's dog. If you've never experienced one, remind me to tell you sometime.

Keep looking up, I'll try to remind you about the meteor shower later in the month.

Mary, my friend just got back a few weeks ago from Canada. He brought back dozens of great pictures of the northern lights! He stopped by my house last thursday 10-30-03 and told me he could see them from his house! Of course I missed them, but if you say they will be visable this sunday night I will be looking. Every time I see meteors or planets I think of the star party we had at Brodaks. That was an awesome experiance!

My wife of 25 years builds, flies, and grooves with me. I am blessed. We witnessed colors in Central California Skies that were extraordinary. We held hands and sort of 'giggled', knowing that this was the next removal from Haley's comet...
Did I mention that she is 13 years my Junior? No matter, she is beautiful and builds a lot better than I do...
Mike

> Mary, my friend just got back a few weeks ago from Canada.
>He brought back dozens of great pictures of the northern
>lights! He stopped by my house last thursday 10-30-03 and
>told me he could see them from his house! Of course I missed
>them, but if you say they will be visable this sunday night
>I will be looking. Every time I see meteors or planets I
>think of the star party we had at Brodaks. That was an
>awesome experiance!

Mike,

That was so much fun. Do you think Peabody liked the Star Party?? I hope everyone gets to see these, it's amazing! Check out the website that was posted, but remember, aurora can be flukey, so be patient.

Tell your friend I envy them. I have been waiting for about 25 years to see my first.

Good luck,

To make it easy to tell where and when to look to see an auroal display, just follow the link below and check the Auroracam for an overview of current activity.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/aurora_cam.html

CyberFlyer