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hobbies Astronomy
- Thread starter dragonsfire
- Start date
Another Good Night despite the smoke from BC fires. Too thick to get details on Saturn though.
Im just happy to have clear skies, if the fires dont stop we might be smoked out that day unfortunatly 
Stars on Aug 12, just saw 8 in a couple hours.
Stars on Aug 12, just saw 8 in a couple hours.
Moon last night with all that fire smoke about, sun still giving a copper glow today.
Lots of spots on the Sun this Rotation.
From the camp trip, Aug 26, partial cloudy and smoky.
MilkyWay
Double Cluster
MilkyWay
Double Cluster
I figure that since about half of the forces at play in an aurora show is not from this world, this thread would be a good place to start a discussion of the northern (and southern) lights.
I grew up in central Wisconsin and got to see the northern lights on occasion as a kid. One of my most memorable shows (also the first time I saw them) was during the huge geomagnetic storm back in '89. I remember the entire northern half of the sky (and to some extent, past overhead into the southern half!) was red. I didn't know at the time that red aurorae are pretty rare - the result of particularly high-energy solar wind ions. I don't recall seeing much motion in the lights that night, basically just huge wall of diffuse red light - much like AJ described in my status (but red instead of green).
The best show I ever saw was also in central Wisconsin - back during the storm in '02. That was the first time I really saw motion in the lights. Huge lightning-like spires that erupted from the main corona, giant patches of ribbons that looked like bright green silk fabric rippling in a breeze, and the trademark curtains that undulated and flared for hours. My buddies and I were hanging out in town and could see them plain as day even under the city street lights. We decided to head out of town and watch from the roof of my friend's barn and that's right where we stayed, jaws dropped, for the next three hours.
I've seen them about a dozen times in my life and since my wife and I moved to northern Minnesota in June, I've already seen them three times. I expect to add many more nights out under the magnetosphere, quietly whispering "holy shit!" and the occasional "what the fuuuuuuuuck!" to myself in the years to come.
If anyone else has seen some particularly good show, let's hear about them. Because, as anyone who's seen a good show knows, pictures just don't do them justice!
Here are some forecast tools to help plan when to look:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
http://www.aurorawatch.ca/
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/NorthAmerica/20170909
The first link has a ton of information (yay, NOAA!), this is one of their forcast models that will be more useful for beginners:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast
I grew up in central Wisconsin and got to see the northern lights on occasion as a kid. One of my most memorable shows (also the first time I saw them) was during the huge geomagnetic storm back in '89. I remember the entire northern half of the sky (and to some extent, past overhead into the southern half!) was red. I didn't know at the time that red aurorae are pretty rare - the result of particularly high-energy solar wind ions. I don't recall seeing much motion in the lights that night, basically just huge wall of diffuse red light - much like AJ described in my status (but red instead of green).
The best show I ever saw was also in central Wisconsin - back during the storm in '02. That was the first time I really saw motion in the lights. Huge lightning-like spires that erupted from the main corona, giant patches of ribbons that looked like bright green silk fabric rippling in a breeze, and the trademark curtains that undulated and flared for hours. My buddies and I were hanging out in town and could see them plain as day even under the city street lights. We decided to head out of town and watch from the roof of my friend's barn and that's right where we stayed, jaws dropped, for the next three hours.
I've seen them about a dozen times in my life and since my wife and I moved to northern Minnesota in June, I've already seen them three times. I expect to add many more nights out under the magnetosphere, quietly whispering "holy shit!" and the occasional "what the fuuuuuuuuck!" to myself in the years to come.
If anyone else has seen some particularly good show, let's hear about them. Because, as anyone who's seen a good show knows, pictures just don't do them justice!
Here are some forecast tools to help plan when to look:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
http://www.aurorawatch.ca/
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/NorthAmerica/20170909
The first link has a ton of information (yay, NOAA!), this is one of their forcast models that will be more useful for beginners:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast
Best show I remember seeing was probably in '97 or '98. I was in high school, and me and the boys were tripping on gel tabs in the summertime. It was about 4pm, and the sky turned a really cool shade of green and a bunch of "microbursts" were happening (no, we weren't imagining it, haha). It started downpouring, so we all hopped in a car to stay dry and started driving around. Now, there's 5 of us tripping and driving through torrential downpours while the sky is bright green, and "Riders on the Storm" comes on the radio. Blew. Our. Minds. For whatever reason, my buddy had a police scanner in the car, and we'd heard that a house got struck by lightning and caught on fire. We turned the (FM) radio down to listen more closely...... My buddy says, "Dude, that's on my street!" [the rest of us]"That's CRAZY! Let's go check it out!".....Hybrid_Mode_01 said:
We found the house. Turns out it was my buddy's house. All 5 of us got out of the car and stood in the pouring rain in the middle of the road, TRIPPING BALLS, and watched my buddy's house burn to the ground.
Sorry, that was just the first story that came to mind
Maybe you had to be there
Carry on. Astronomy and such.......
Havent seen them in 20 years since I moved South, when I lived in Edmonton I would see some Awesome shows of light, do miss em.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2VXyfvZxSU
A rare clear sky last night, breifly. clouded over right now and had some more snow.
SOme unexpected good details, had 54km gust of winds adding -15c to the windchill, scope was bouncing around last night.
Stopped snowing around one and sun came out, was not long lasting and saw clouds moving in so decided to grab the Day Moon.
Full Size https://flic.kr/p/24DDtYc
Full Size https://flic.kr/p/24DDtnn
Day Moon a couple hours ago
Full size https://flic.kr/p/24zYRoJ
Stopped snowing around one and sun came out, was not long lasting and saw clouds moving in so decided to grab the Day Moon.
Full Size https://flic.kr/p/24DDtYc
Full Size https://flic.kr/p/24DDtnn
Day Moon a couple hours ago
Full size https://flic.kr/p/24zYRoJ
Orion XT8i Dobsonion scope, Explore Scientific 24mm Eye Piece, E-PM2 camera with a lumix 20mm lens, SteadyPics Delux mount for Camera/EP Afocal connection to scope.
Takes a few hundred pics to "Stack" to accumulate fine detail, a program called Registax is use, its free.
Thanks!
Takes a few hundred pics to "Stack" to accumulate fine detail, a program called Registax is use, its free.
Thanks!
