Aurora Borealis

For those in Scotland, Ireland and northern England there is a chance of seeing the Northern Lights tonight and over the next couple of days.

 

I'd love to see this. I don't think I'm far enough north to see it. My Scottish grandad wanted to go up to the very north of Scotland to see the Aurora but sadly passed away before he got the chance. I swore to myself I'd go see it for him. My dream is to go back to Norway and see it over there

 

I think tomorrow is more likely for a visual display. I monitor the planetary K index and although there's been a CME (cosmic mass ejection) from the sun, the K index which is updated every three hours is still down at K-1 and when a magnetic storm hits it should rise to K-5 or greater.
There still might be a chance tonight as those particles from the sun are moving pretty fast!!

 

My Dad saw them from Guildford when he was a lad, not something that happens often.

 

I saw an absolutely extraordinary (to me) display of the Aurora Borealis in Canada once but all the Canadians, I was with, were only interested in the beer that night. I suppose it's so common there that they're not fussed.

 

Guildford, Had you started your home brew at that time ? :-)

Jack McH

 

No, Dad was born before me

 

Maybe so, but you might have had a brew going when Grandad had a wee dram and then spied the lights ?

Jack McH

 

I had a set of Arthur Mees encyclopedias when I was a bean . It showed the incidence of viewing the Northern Lights at different latitudes , they can be seen in Rome once or twice a century !
Also on Stargazing they explained the "Winter hexagon ", which I had heard of but knew nothing about it . They are a group of 6 bright stars in the southern sky .Walking into our street after the pub quiz last night , there was the Winter hexagon around Orions belt in the SW ! It stood out as clear as day, well as clear as night ...you know what I mean !

 

That's sad but its true, we see them here a lot so we don't take notice as much as we should. If you do get the chance to see them, they wont disappoint, they are simply incredible.

 

I'm visiting in the north of the island this evening and taking my camera with me just in case!

 

I saw the Aurora Borealis about half way down France driving through the nigh many years agot. I was astonished that it was to the South of us though. Magnificent display and made the drive more interesting, the rest of the occupants in the car fast asleep. As we progressed South it became apparent that it was a laser Lightshow at a huge Rave

Je suis un plus grand plonker que Rodney !!

 

I was lucky enough to see them some years ago from my home town of Kidderminster. It was the 6th April 2000 and the only reason I saw them was because there was supposed to be an alignment of planets in the sky that night that had been on the news. It was one if the most due racist sights I've ever seen and I really hope to see them again sometime. The whole sky was milky grey in appearance but every now and then a patch would become brighter and glow red and green until around 10 minutes later it would fade into nothingness.