Solar and Aurora Activity Chat

[Cleeve Hill]

Yes, the Aurora Forecast Europe website has the KP value at 6.33 which brings the Aurora down to North Coast of Ulster and much of Scotland you lucky people.

We have recently come back for a short artic cruise from Tromso to see the Lights (which we did) but to see it from Home is quite magical. 

Having said that the wife thinks a rainbow is more of a sight than the Northern Lights !

[Costa Del Fal]

30 minutes ago, Summer of 95 said:

Northern horizon here has a strange greenish hue, particularly the bit around the star Deneb. It's not streetlight glow (no towns that way) it's too late for twilight. It can't be, can it???

Quite possible! Aurora reported in North Wales and Norfolk!

[Summer of 95]

Just now, Costa Del Fal said:

Quite possible! Aurora reported in North Wales and Norfolk!

Yes! Wasn't sure when the only reports were in Scotland, but those are at my latitude.

It's a strange sight, looks somewhat like the "lingering twilight" you get in that direction in June, but greenish. I thought it was something because I saw it without my glasses, went inside to grab them and it was very noticeable. So, so glad for that gap in the clouds.....

[Costa Del Fal]

6 minutes ago, Summer of 95 said:

Yes! Wasn't sure when the only reports were in Scotland, but those are at my latitude.

It's a strange sight, looks somewhat like the "lingering twilight" you get in that direction in June, but greenish. I thought it was something because I saw it without my glasses, went inside to grab them and it was very noticeable. So, so glad for that gap in the clouds.....

Too cloudy down here at the moment but is your view of the northern horizon good and are you free of light pollution? Would love to see it here too but seems a bit far fetched being in an urban/semi urban area although my view to the North is fairly dark albeit with the horizon mainly obscured by trees.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Costa Del Fal

[Summer of 95]

3 minutes ago, Costa Del Fal said:

Too cloudy down here at the moment but is your view of the northern horizon good and are you free of light pollution? Would love to see it here too but seems a bit far fetched being in an urban/semi urban area.

Pretty good, I'm north of Shrewsbury and nearest large town in that direction is a good 20 miles away. No hills that way either. Skies here are about 5.5 magnitude at their best. Some houses and trees but can see to within about 3-4 deg of the actual horizon, the greenish glow extended about 10 deg (max) above that.

More cloud coming from that direction now, but I'll be out checking again tonight.

 

[Midlands Ice Age]

2 minutes ago, Summer of 95 said:

Pretty good, I'm north of Shrewsbury and nearest large town in that direction is a good 20 miles away. No hills that way either. Skies here are about 5.5 magnitude at their best. Some houses and trees but can see to within about 3-4 deg of the actual horizon, the greenish glow extended about 10 deg (max) above that.

More cloud coming from that direction now, but I'll be out checking again tonight.

 

SOf95..

Was at Baschurch this afternoon. Anywhere near there?

As I left a few snow grains were falling. Did you see anything?

MIA

Edited March 6, 2016 by Midlands Ice Age

[Summer of 95]

5 minutes ago, Midlands Ice Age said:

SOf95..

Was at Baschurch this afternoon. Anywhere near there?

As I left a few snow grains were falling. Did you see anything?

MIA

3 miles away. Never saw any snow grains, but I could have missed a 5 minute wonder. Rather have aurorae than that 

[Polar Maritime]

Showing well here.

http://www.shetland.org/60n/webcams/cliff-cam

[frogesque]

Turned into great view, band held steady and fairly quiet for 1/2 hour or so then the sky erupted. Some patches almost as far south as the top of Orion stretching across to just above Jupiter.  Unfortunately the camera battery kept dying on me so had to keep taking it out and warm it up in my pocket. Show is still ongoing  as of 10.00pm.

 

 

[mushymanrob]

1 hour ago, Summer of 95 said:

Northern horizon here has a strange greenish hue, particularly the bit around the star Deneb. It's not streetlight glow (no towns that way) it's too late for twilight. It can't be, can it???

PoSsibly

[mushymanrob]

7 minutes ago, frogesque said:

Turned into great view, band held steady and fairly quiet for 1/2 hour or so then the sky erupted. Some patches almost as far south as the top of Orion stretching across to just above Jupiter.  Unfortunately the camera battery kept dying on me so had to keep taking it out and warm it up in my pocket. Show is still ongoing  as of 10.00pm.

 

 

Beautiful!  Thanks for shar Ing

[frogesque]

13 minutes ago, mushymanrob said:

PoSsibly

Yep,  A fainter aurora looks like a very soft cloud but the stars shine through it. The best way to describe is a sort of milk in water hue. A camera will pick it up as mainly green with maybe some other colours thrown in

[Muffelchen]

Pretty faint in Beverley right  now, but it is there!

[Summer of 95]

Seems to have died down now, the sky is back to its normal appearance. Was definitely there between 8.30-10pm though, at one point there were low clouds in the north and a greenish glow was coming out the top of them.

Like faint clouds but with stars visible through them is a pretty good description of what it looked like. Not those moving curtains and rays you see in pictures, but great to finally see one at all!!! Never saw anything a couple of years ago when this board was full of reports.

[Daniel*]

3 hours ago, Costa Del Fal said:

Quite possible! Aurora reported in North Wales and Norfolk!

Incredibly stunning natural phenomena ! 

[Summer of 95]

It's coming back- there's a glow again, and it's sending bits up higher in the sky. Looks a lot like high cloud but 3rd and 4th magnitude stars are visible through it. 

[Weather-history]

Caught the aurora twice on my time-lapse overnight.  The second outburst was strong. Clouds were annoying.

 

[Polar Maritime]

Just a green haze on the horizon at my location last night, Some cracking shots/vids reported (especially Frogs!), Thanks for sharing! Kp7 Storm expected later 

GEOMAGNETIC STORM LIGHTS UP EUROPE AND THE USA: A stream of high-speed solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, and this is causing geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. So far, Northern Lights have descended as far south as Germany in Europe and Massachusetts in the USA. Skies over much of England turned green, too. Sian Louise Gordon sends this picture from Saltburn-by-the-Sea:

"It was an absolutely amazing display here in the north of England," reports Gordon. "The entire northern skyline was lit up! You could clearly make out pillars by eye, which was amazing."

NOAA forecasters say there is a 50% chance of more geomagnetic storms on March 7th as Earth moves deeper into the solar wind stream. The magnetic polarity of the stream is negative--a condition which favors auroras. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights. http://spaceweather.com/

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by Polar Maritime

[Beverley Lass]

8 hours ago, Muffelchen said:

Pretty faint in Beverley right  now, but it is there!

Oh no !  .. I wish I'd been aware there was a chance 

 

Glad to see others were lucky though and fab to see the pics.

B.

[mushymanrob]

i wish the prediction of its strength was more accurate, it was much stronger then the predicted strength, obviously not easy to judge. so i wasnt prepared, and had been drinking so couldnt drive to a suitable location, derby is to my north so the lights would obscure the show.

[Beverley Lass]

Do any of you get notifications of 'storms' ?

I used to via email with AuroraWatch but I believe they stopped doing them.

I'm always grateful for any 'heads up' of a chance.

I have only ever seen the merest horizon glow of green/red which was slightly more evident on camera.

B.

[mushymanrob]

3 hours ago, Beverley Lass said:

Do any of you get notifications of 'storms' ?

I used to via email with AuroraWatch but I believe they stopped doing them.

I'm always grateful for any 'heads up' of a chance.

I have only ever seen the merest horizon glow of green/red which was slightly more evident on camera.

B.

they do on facebook... https://www.facebook.com/aurorawatchuk/?fref=nf

 

you can get text alerts to your mobile too

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by mushymanrob

[Summer of 95]

I think it caught the forecasters by surprise, Aurora Watch Facebook was still saying "stubbornly below the threshold" as reports were piling in. So many times I've heard on the news "big sunspot", "solar storm"," aurorae tonight" and seen nothing. Yesterday there was no warning- and there it was! Shows how hard they are to predict.

[Methuselah]

I can count the number of recent snowfalls on one hand...I never saw last night's aurora because - it was snowing! 

[frogesque]

Re forecasting. Space weather tend to be American biased but the did correctly forecast a co-rotating volume of solar wind  to hit t Earth on the 7th. There after I keep an eye on Solarham to see what is actually going on. The best indicators and live are the solar wind speed and density with, critically, Bz, the magnetic orientation of the solar wind. This showed a dramatic kick to the south yesterday evening.

The other good live indicators are the earth currents on the magnetograms, when they start going bonkers it's time to look out the door. 

All that said, the intensity of the display and whether it is static, dynamic, green or multicoloured can only be seen by actually looking at it. It's what makes aurora watching so interesting, and frustrating. Last night it all came good for the northern UK with clear sky and no moon. Even the wind died so no fighting to keep the camera tripod from falling over.

Note to self though, remember to take fully charged battery and a spare next time! Spare memory cards don't go amis either.