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Aurora (Read 102268 times)

lagerstarfish

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#25 Re: Aurora
January 23, 2012, 10:25:07 pm
I've seen them

Aviemore, March '91. I thought it was some car headlights shining into the sky at first. Greenish beams scanning from L to R with a constant green tinge just above the horizon.

Saw them again whilst in The 'Gorms in early '94, but very faint

SA Chris

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#26 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 09:38:45 am
Does anyone have any experience of viewing them?

In Glencoe in the freakishly cold winter of '81/'82. Low budget Scottish black & white version though - no colours.

Yeah, that's what we saw last night. Hiked up Clach na beinn (gaelic for "hill that looks like a wart" probably). Got to the top about 11:30 and it was quite cloudy to the North, so we just took pics of the city lights stars etc, then about 1 pm some parallel white lines appeared quite high above Aberdeen and waved around for about 10 minutes before disappearing. Still pretty cool and worth the effort as it was an amazing night. Could do with some kip now though!

Adam if you fancy driving up to Aberdeen for a bouldering session at Transition tomorrow night give us a shout.

SA Chris

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#27 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 12:43:53 pm
That would be 1 am obv.

Any experts got a view on there being anything worthwhile later in the week? Thursday is looking clear.

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#28 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 12:54:38 pm
I saw them in Sheffield!! in about '97/8. Well I say I saw them, I saw something that looked exactly the same as all the picutres/vidoes I've seen of the Aurora, it may well have been some other wonder of the natural world :shrug:

Anyway it was in Sheffield (Crookes to be precise) and I just luckily went outside for some random reason and glanced up. Didn't last long but was very clear. Surely others here must have lived in Sheffield at the time and seen it, I have a notional idea that it might have been mentioned in the local press.

nik at work

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#29 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 12:59:05 pm
A quick search brings up this thread:
http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-464594.html
Which appears to confirm my viewing, although my dates might have been a year or so out.


Will Hunt

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#30 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 01:03:11 pm
Tick. Reykjavik 2005 I think  :P

LB1782

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#31 Re: Aurora
January 24, 2012, 06:02:39 pm
The CME (big eruption from the Sun) hit at about 15:00 today.
I'd say there was a pretty good chance of geomagnetic storms overnight.
Whether that will translate into there being aurorae to see at a given location,  I can't say.

SA Chris

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#32 Re: Aurora
January 25, 2012, 09:30:54 am
Sadly forecast tonight is for overcast and rainy up here. I've got camera gear with me though, and will sack of wall session and head to a beach away from light pollution if there is any chance of it clearing. Apparently there was some visible from Deeside yesterday when the clouds cleared briefly last night. Any idea how long it will last?

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#33 Re: Aurora
January 25, 2012, 02:34:07 pm
Any idea how long it will last?

Typically a geomagnetic storm might last 2-10 hours with the aurorae fluctuating in brightness within that.  Unfortunately, yesterday's CME triggered activity has been and gone.  The word from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre is that the, "aurora watch is cancelled for all but the highest latitudes around the Arctic Circle".

Here (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapN.gif) is an image that is updated regularly.  The orange oval gives a pretty good indication of the likely extent of the aurora.  There is currently a bit of activity below 60deg lat over Canada. I wouldn't bet on much happening tonight at Aberdeen-like latitudes.

There may well be another CME in the next few days and they'll almost certainly become more frequent as we move towards solar maximum.



SA Chris

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#34 Re: Aurora
January 25, 2012, 02:53:29 pm
Nice one. Keep watching the skies!

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#35 Re: Aurora
January 25, 2012, 03:00:16 pm
Any idea how long it will last?

Typically a geomagnetic storm might last 2-10 hours with the aurorae fluctuating in brightness within that.  Unfortunately, yesterday's CME triggered activity has been and gone.  The word from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre is that the, "aurora watch is cancelled for all but the highest latitudes around the Arctic Circle".

Here (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapN.gif) is an image that is updated regularly.  The orange oval gives a pretty good indication of the likely extent of the aurora.  There is currently a bit of activity below 60deg lat over Canada. I wouldn't bet on much happening tonight at Aberdeen-like latitudes.

There may well be another CME in the next few days and they'll almost certainly become more frequent as we move towards solar maximum.

Thats a great post. Thanks.

But, you have missed an excellent opportunity to Sandbag Chris and get him to spend a cold night out in a tent looking for something that wasnt going to be there ;)

SA Chris

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#36 Re: Aurora
January 25, 2012, 03:47:22 pm
It's Ok, I could have probably trapped a couple of young haggis as they are largely nocturnal.

SA Chris

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#37 Re: Aurora
February 01, 2012, 11:26:51 am


Probably the best shot we got last week, see greenish bit bottom left, which was barely visible.

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#38 Re: Aurora
February 05, 2012, 11:51:55 pm
Can see it in Northumberland at Kielder observatory apparently, they do Aurora evenings

http://www.kielderobservatory.org/

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#39 Re: Aurora
February 26, 2012, 10:42:48 am
Another CME erupted a day or so ago. May hit us at a glancing angle. The interplanetary magnetic field is also favourable (pointing southward) for a magnetic storm.

Looks like there may well be too much cloud for decent aurorae over northern Scotland tonight though.

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#40 Re: Aurora
February 26, 2012, 12:19:04 pm
Saw them driving up to Glencoe about 5 winters back. Stopped on Rannoch Moor briefly. It looked like wavy green fabric, pretty awesome.

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#41 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 08:06:04 am
Big solar storm too late for last night, but there may be some to light up the sky further north tonight.

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#42 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 08:24:55 am
Big solar storm too late for last night, but there may be some to light up the sky further north tonight.

6am to 10am today apparently, ther  may  e  ome dis up ion to dig  al c mm nicati ns

SA Chris

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#43 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:05:21 am
(almost) full moon though :(

Our friendly local astrophysicist gave me a heads up last night, but moon didn't help, plus we are the wrong side of Aberdeen so suffer with light pollution. Maybe tonight?

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#44 Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:09:15 am
Supposed to affect us until Friday eve. Clear in Amsterdam today, so hopeful, if a little far south...

SA Chris

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#45 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:12:38 am
I'm in Cardiff Fri and Sat night so doubt I will see much.

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#46 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:25:02 am
The British Geological Survey have issued an aurora alert (http://t.co/8hx5KQpr) with their twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/BGSspaceWeather) reckoning that the best chance will be tonight (Thursday).  Looks like it'll be pretty cloudy here in Edinburgh but with patchy clouds around Aberdeen.

The latest auroral oval is looking pretty far north and fairly puny just now.  This should change as the storm loads energy into  the Earth's magnetic field over the next few hours.

@SA Chris the BGS also do a 'sign up for alerts' service.  They might be more communicative than the aurorawatch lot.


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#47 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 05:36:11 pm
There is a satellite called ACE that is sitting upstream of us.  It is not sampling the magnetic field from well inside the big explosion.  At the moment, the field up in space is not pointing in a direction that is likely to give us a major geomagnetic storm.

Upstream conditions might change though.

Someone has built a twitter sourced aurora visibility map:

If you tweet #aurora,1st half of postcode, & rate visibility/10, you will contribute to the live map at http://t.co/oqAbFgue

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#48 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:35:29 pm
was very lucky to be in Shetland over the weekend with work and even more lucky to go to Fair Isle, just when I thought I couldn't get any luckier, 2 nights of spectacular showings, green glowing skies, despite the bright moon  :)

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#49 Re: Aurora
March 08, 2012, 09:48:20 pm
I was on a flight over th pole to Vancouver a few years back. Abrilliant aurora was visible out of the right hand side of the plane... I was sat on the left. I tried to get to a R/H window but it was mayhem, I went back to my seat and watched Harry Potter... Again  :'(

 

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