Aurora watch - solar storm

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

begreen

Mooderator
Staff member
Nov 18, 2005
104,429
South Puget Sound, WA

Attachments

  • aurora.jpg
    aurora.jpg
    37.1 KB · Views: 444
That is an amazing picture!
 
If it's clear out tonight, look north.
 
i've only seen the northern lights twice in my life
living in new england...both times you could tell the
sky was either red or green but it was nothing like
the show they put on further to the north,,

it must be incredible to see in Alaska or Canada
 
Why does this always seem to happen when it's cloudy here?! ARG! I saw the northern lights once over the lake when I was a kid, but not since. I'd love to see them again...

That photo is amazing, it looked like an eagle to me.
 
CTguy9230 said:
i've only seen the northern lights twice in my life
living in new england...both times you could tell the
sky was either red or green but it was nothing like
the show they put on further to the north,,

it must be incredible to see in Alaska or Canada

Hang in there. I saw a great show of lights when living in Cornwall, CT. It stunned me so much that I pulled off the road and parked, in Carol King's driveway. (Found that out later.) The other big show I saw was in Maine, on the ocean off of Camden. Both times were stunning, but the CT experience was more colorful. When you catch a good show it's breathtaking.
 
BeGreen said:
CTguy9230 said:
i've only seen the northern lights twice in my life
living in new england...both times you could tell the
sky was either red or green but it was nothing like
the show they put on further to the north,,

it must be incredible to see in Alaska or Canada

Hang in there. I saw a great show of lights when living in Cornwall, CT. It stunned me so much that I pulled off the road and parked, in Carol King's driveway. (Found that out later.) The other big show I saw was in Maine, on the ocean off of Camden. Both times were stunning, but the CT experience was more colorful. When you catch a good show it's breathtaking.


guess i'll have to keep an eye to the north tonight then...
 
Living in Illinois, I've only seen the northern lights once. I was driving home from work around 10pm when I noticed a red glow behind me ( I was driving south). Since I was alone on the road, I twisted my head around to see what is was. Man, it was gorgeous! I stopped for a minute to admire it since I had never seen anything like it, but I had a serious decision to make. I could stay where I was and watch the show, or hurry home to wake my wife so she could also enjoy it.This was in the days before cell phones, so I couldn't call her. Since she is a science teacher and also had not seen the aurora the decision wasn't hard. I put the pedal to the metal and hoped it was still happening by the time I got home. Fortunately, she got to see the tail end of it.
It's getting close to sunset now with only a few clouds in the sky, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's big and bright enough to see from my farm.
 
We are clouded over here. I'll keep checking later in hopes it clears off. I saw a beautiful display when I was a kid then a fair one twenty or so years ago. Maybe tonights the night.
 
Tonight is cloudy here, and so was last night. There is not a clear night predicted for several days here. I think we will miss the aurora, if in fact it would be visible here.
 
Cloudy here too w/snow showers and freezing rain expected. Wish I could see it tho
 
Backwoods said:
How long will this phennominum last?

It's over till the next one. Sun spot cycle is just warming up, so there will be more.
 
Were pretty goods ones last night,
Tonight it's cloudy, -1° & light snow.
 
Lucky man. The aurora is the one thing I would head up north in winter for. Here's another clip:

 
The guy I rent a room too took these last night. It's not something that is easy to photograph and it's a much different experience when seeing it in person. I've set out a lawn chair and stared at the sky for a few hours before just watching.

402012_3035513217273_1546233983_32847598_278083742_n.jpg


402989_3035496536856_1546233983_32847591_1644359581_n.jpg


403102_3035506457104_1546233983_32847594_2028154509_n.jpg
 
In all the videos I have seen of the lights they seem to be wiggling around and moving alot. Do they really move like that or do they speed up the video?
 
They are time-lapse videos and definitely sped up. In a way that's a shame because it diminishes the majesty of a good auroral display. Sometimes they can be lazy and drifting and sometimes they can be quite dynamic. When I saw them off the coast of Maine they were moving very quickly, faster than we were sailing, in sheets overhead.

Here's more stunning examples of high-definition, time-lapse, auroras:

My fave: http://vimeo.com/21419634 - watch full-screen on the biggest screen you can.
and http://vimeo.com/21294655

And here are some real-time examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLO54lJJeks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZqunGsw814
 
Sometimes the just shoot out in a ray, sometimes wavy moving lines. Sometimes very fast, sometimes slow.
Oxygen atoms mean green, reds & purples are nitrogen atoms.
Continually changing & dancing.
I believe the videos are sped up.
All my pictures came out black, I need a better camera to get pictures.
 
The ones I posted were taken with a ~$3000 camera/lense

bogydave said:
All my pictures came out black, I need a better camera to get pictures.
 
Ironically, the few nights that this was going on were the only couple of overcast days we've had in seems like weeks. A couple of photographers from the newspaper drove north to get out from under the snow cover and took some shots, but it was hard to get a sense of what they looked like from the photos.

If you can picture the lights moving like that video about half speed, that's probably a more accurate representation. Agreed, they look kind of silly whipping around like that--majestic is a good word for the real thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.