poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2010-08-05 09:33 am

Staying Up For The Aurora

Fred the weatheman said that thanks to the solar flares there was a fair chance of us seeing the aurora borealis last night. I've never (that I can remember) seen the aurora, so I stayed up on purpose just in case. There was no aurora- or if there was- it was happening on the far side of the light-polluted clouds. The aurora is green and the sky last night was blue and orange- which is just as nice, if you think about it- only rather more common.

[identity profile] trixibelle-net.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
We apparently had Aurora Australis on Tuesday night, but I couldn't see it - although I am living in the centre of Wellington. They get it quite a lot on the south of the South Island, hoping we might get a chance to see it down there before our eventual return.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 12:50 pm (UTC)(link)
It's very rare for the aurora to be visible in our neck of the woods.

[identity profile] sorenr.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 01:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I saw a bit of the Northern Lights when I was in Greenland, though it was a rather sedate affair; a faint shimmer of white light that billowed across the night sky.

However, 12 years ago I saw it in Denmark, and it was bright and impressive and absolutely unforgettably astoundingly beautiful... Green ribbons curling across the sky, and I was 19 and at fresher's week away at the school of Architecture, so there was a full-blown party going on in a tent that Saturday night, but 250 newly admitted students of architecture turned off the music, left the beer taps and walked down to the beach to just stare at the spectacle. It takes quite a spectacle to manage that, as I'm sure you appreciate...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 02:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I envy you that experience.

I'm not sure if we have another chance at the aurora tonight, but I'll be sticking my head out the window just in case.

[identity profile] sorenr.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
It's been too cloudy to see it here for the past couple of night (where I've been in the summer house with optimal observation conditions), and tonight I'm in Copenhagen so haven't got a chance, even if it should reoccur. :-(

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
If tonight's weather person is to be believed I'm a little too far south to see it. Helas!
sovay: (Morell: quizzical)

[personal profile] sovay 2010-08-05 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
The aurora is green and the sky last night was blue and orange- which is just as nice, if you think about it- only rather more common.

It's been overcast here, too—never mind the radioactive glow from Boston—but I like the idea that it's happening somewhere.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I way be a little too far south to see it. The weather person said that it would visible tonight "as far south as Lancaster" which is about fifty miles north of here.

[identity profile] endlessrarities.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
According to AuroraWatch yesterday evening, it was Situation Normal. Haven't checked back the graphs in retrospect, mind...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
The weather person was saying it might be visible tonight as far south as Lancaster- which is about fifty miles north of here.

[identity profile] endlessrarities.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
If you're not signed up to AuroraWatch already, you should join up. You'll never miss your Aurora Borealis again. Unless it's two o-clock in the afternoon, which it often is.

It's a bit of a bummer, to be told 'Go outside. And look up. NOW!!' when the sun's shining:-(

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I must do that.....

Thanks.

[identity profile] silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I read that we wouldn't be able to see it - not enough activity over the south of the UK. :-(

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-08-05 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I believe I may be a little too far south too. The weatherperson tonight said Lancaster was the southernmost viewing point- and that's 50 miles north of here.