Northern Light's show tonight

[Budgie]

For those of you still awake, there is a great light show on tonight.

The Aurora is currently giving it's best show so far this winter for the UK and I'm stuck in work!!    ](*,)

The earth was hit by a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun this afternoon and this has set off some great auroral activity. It's been going for about 3 hours now in Stornoway and is quite strong. Official activity level is 10, out of 10!!  :shock:

If you are in the northern part of the UK, have clear skys and don't have any towns near you then look towards the North at about 45 degrees elivation and see if there is a greenish glow in the sky.

You may see something like this:


Good luck.  

Oh, and here's some links for anyone interested.  
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/
http://www.spaceweather.com
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

[muddyman]

I would love to see that light show, one day I will

[Frankie-Boy]

Hmmm, I wonder if there'll be a show when I visit Duncan next month?

[laser_jock99]

I got some e-mail alerts that it was likely to happen from here:

http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch

You can subscribe to the alerts on their website.

Sadly it was very cloudy here in the Midlands. A friend in York was able to see something through gaps in the cloud,

[Bush Tucker Man]

Will there be the remnants of it tonight/early morning??

[tomarse]

how far south is this likely to be visible?. Its minging and cloudy and raining here at the moment and not due to clear up till later :(

[Budgie]

I used to subscribe to Aurora Watch but found that the emails were either late arriving or I could be stood outside looking at the lights with their site saying "no significant activity" so I now use NOAA's POES activity which seems more accurate.  

There is strong activity tonight, level 9 right now, but it's not affecting the UK just yet. It may stretch further south later as the Earth rotates and we are futhest from the Sun.
If you look at the Gif below, it's a "live" Gif so will update as the night goes on, the red arrow indicates where the Sun is and you'll notice that the strongest activity is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun.
You can make out the UK on the righthand side and to get anything you need Scotland to be covered with the white or yellow sectors of the activity, orange or red would be even better!!


As to how far South, that's hard to say. There have been photos taken in the Southwest before and provided you have nice clear sky and no light pollution then just keep an eye towards the North around midnight.

I'm not working tonight so fingers crossed.  [-o<

If you see it and want a photo then you need a tripod, a camera that has an exposure setting of around 30 seconds, wide apature and just point the camera in the right direction. You can try with a normal digital but I've only ever ended up with a black image so far.  :(

[Skibum346]

Helped out at a scout jamboree near Inverness quite a few years ago (The Cally Rally) and as the scouts were arriving on Friday night, (this was October by the way!) someone looked up and every floodlight, lamp and torch was extinguished and we watched waves of light playing across the sky for a good hour or so.

I had my camera and tripod but it just didn't do it justice. I ended up with broad blurs of light rather than the very defined waves.

Only time in my life I've seen them  :(

Skibum

[laser_jock99]

how far south is this likely to be visible?. Its minging and cloudy and raining here at the moment and not due to clear up till later :(

Here's a picture I took from Warwickshire (which is further South than Crewe!) in November 1989. It was a really strong display though and was seen as far South as Italy. I recall from reports at the time Scottish observers had to face Southwards to see it!



EDIT- if you study the centre of the photo you just make out the stars of the Plough/Big Dipper!!!

[Lee_D]

We are off to see the big man soon and I'm hoping that this is one of the things we get to see in the process.

 [-o<

[Budgie]

If you're above a latitude of 60 degrees North and have clear skys then you stand a good chance. Look for a greenish glow to the North around 11pm onwards.  

[jiffyman]

Went to Lapland on my honeymoon,four days over Christmas, were really excited to be booked up on a Northern Lights tour.

We sat in our Snow-moblie pulled sleds, wrapped up in Reindeer rug, nice and cosy.

Went to the top of this hill, had a talk about the lights in this wonderful little hut, eating and drinking whilst being show clips and slides about the 'lights'.

Then we were told it was about the right time to go outside to see this spectacle,

EXCELLENT!!!!!! BLOOMING CLOUD!!