Second Chance of Possible Northern Lights

Donegal Skies

The Northern Lights may be visible from Donegal on Tues15th/ Wed 16th February. Read about it here:

http://www.donegalskies.com/in-the-skies

Hopefully the weather cooperates this time round. The Moon may interfere this time but it should still be worth keeping an eye out for.

Brendan
www.DonegalSkies.com

clln

Hi Brendan,any chance this could extend further south? tanx,

woops sorry,posted in haste i see from the link that it is possible but further North the better!

irish1967

Any chance you could post a link to the website that doesn't involve Flash. Not viewable via the iPhone.
Thanks

creaghadoos

thanks brendan, without your post i wouldn't have known

muckish

Look out tonight as magnetometers are showing slight increases in activity. The current auroral oval is quite strong over northern Europe. Again around midnight is the best time and the forecast is for clear skies all be it with a 84% full moon. You just never know.

Humans eh!

Fantastic, thanks for the post.
Sad I know, but seeing the Aurora was always an ambition of mine and when they were visible from Ireland last time I actually wept.
Awesome in the true sense of the word.

ednwireland

meh clear as a bell last night was seriously tempted to point the 'scope at jupiter, but had to go to bed, no aurora though !

Donegal Skies

Thanks for the heads up Muckish. I was out looking for the aurora from 23:00-00:00 last night. I wasn't sure if I was seeing the aurora or light clouds. It may have just been the last flickers of a fading display, not sure.

Experienced Aurora hunter Martin McKenna from Northern Ireland did witness an aurora display last night around 10 o'clock. Check out his report and photos here: http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky Events Now.html

Be alert over the coming nights, right up to Thursday, as if the weather holds up it could be promising. Check out http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20110215 and if you’re on twitter follow @Aurora_Alerts for alerts to possible northern lights. If the Kp value is 5 or more there should be a chance of seeing them from here, as far as I know.
Fingers crossed for clear skies!!

muckish

Aurora last night in Norway! Spectacular.

december83

wow! thanks for the post, i will be keeping a look out from donegal town, hopefully see something!

ToniTuddle

Only just seeing this now!


See it pays to be not able to sleep :pac:


*rushes to front window*


EDIT: Nope nothing :-/

slimboyfat

Looking good for tonight again according to here http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky%20Events%20Now.html

Donegal Skies

UPDATE: 16th February

The most aggressive solar eruption since 2007 sent a colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth on the 15th of February. Latest estimates suggest the coronal mass ejection from the 15th will arrive at Earth late on the 17th or early 18th. This will further increase the likelihood of aurora (northern lights) displays over Donegal and the rest of Ireland when this CME reaches Earth on Thursday or Friday. This event coincides with other recent solar flares meaning observers could be in for a real treat if the weather cooperates. So keep your eyes peeled and monitor the online aurora forecasts. The full Moon on the 18th will drown out fainter aurora but any display should still be impressive.

This massive X-flare was has caught up to the previous flares earlier in the week and they are expected to smash in to the Earths atmosphere tonight (Thurs) or the early hours of friday morning. This will almost guarantee some level of Auroral actively over county and prob the country.

So in the words of Neil Young.... Tonight's the night!:cool: The clouds don't seem to know that though! However keep your eyes on the Aurora forecast and keep checking for clear spells, if you're lucky you could catch a glimpse. You will have get to a dark spot away from the lights though.

Bloody clouds...... crystel clear last night when there was no Auroral activety. Typical!:mad:

Here's hoping for clear spells though!

fontanalis

december83 wrote: »

wow! thanks for the post, i will be keeping a look out from donegal town, hopefully see something!

If you don't see the aurora there's always the Mountcharles by-pass!

lkenny

Where would be the best place around Donegal/ Letterkenny 2 get the best view i wonder? The moon was really bright last night and i presume out in the wilderness would be best, away from any town lights etc. any suggestions of where to go?:)

Harps

Not a cloud here in Letterkenny all day, the moon will be a big problem though as it was really bright last night. Can't imagine the town lights will help matters either but I'll have a look out none the less

ednwireland

fontanalis wrote: »

If you don't see the aurora there's always the Mountcharles by-pass!

thats the new airport !

background on the sloar flares here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12493980

Donegal Skies

Yeah, the Moon will drown out a lot of fainter aurorae but some will still be visible. The BBC weather website isn't predicting much in the way of clear skies tonight and they are normally very good. An astronomy friend of mine recomends Horn head but anywhere that has a clear northern horizon with no light pollution along it would be good. Along the north coast would be ideal as it is looking over the sea and you will not get light pollution there!! I have LK and Derry to the north of me so if it's reasonably clear I'll head up to the north coast.

Donegal Skies

also Aurora forecasts here:
http://www.softservenews.com/aurora.htm

Watch the "real time space weather prediction" for predicted Kp numbers. The higher the Kp number the stronger the Aurora. you'll get an hour's warning of possible Aurora from it, Kp number larger than 4 or 5 may mean the Aurora will be visble here.

Also you can follow Aurora_Alerts on twitter here for predicted Kp numbers:
http://twitter.com/#!/Aurora_Alerts

and finally here is an Aurora forecast for tonight but keep checking the other sources for more up to date data:
http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20110217

fontanalis

Brian Cox had a good show on the BBC; Wonders of the Solar System. Some good videos here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlk3RmL7NHE

Clen

saw nothing at Malin anything anyone?

It'sw been on my bucket list for some time too.

muckish

Real chance of Aurora tonight. The current KP value is around 6 so it should be visible at these latitudes. And the skies look like they are going to be clear. Fingers crossed! Enjoy

irlpic

I headed out last night with the wee lad at about 11:30 to see if I could catch a glimpse of the northern lights but no show im afraid. Conditions were perfect - no clouds, no moon, a KP of storm force 6, drove to a hill top with no light pollution for over an hour etc - but no light show ...

So what went wrong? Are these websites such as Soft Serve News that give the aurora predictions unreliable or what? Im sure its more complexed than meets the eye. At least we did get to see an amazing star show.

Btw boardsies, im not knocking this thread, keep any info available posted here as it is really informative and id rather be erring on the side of caution than missing out on something unusual.

Harps

Muckish posted a few pics from last night in the weather forum..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056196067&page=2

Only read this thread a while so had no idea to look out last night

muckish

Did you see a green glow on the horizon? Then that was it. It wasn't like the shows you see on National Geographic, so maybe your expectations were too high. The KP index does have to be high to a shimmering style show at these lattitudes, but the odd time it can exploded into a bit of activity and die down just as quickly. It's a bit of a waiting game unfortunately. You were out at the right time, and as you say the conditions were perfect. At least you got the see an awesome starry night, and I bet that alone made an impression on the wee lad. Keep trying and keep looking at the prediction websites http://www.spacew.com/
There will be post about any potential show on Boards as well no doubt so keep loking here as well. Good luck

irlpic

Thanks Muckish. We seen what youv'e described but it just looked like the lights of letterkenny in the distance to us. Your photos came out very clear. What setting did you use? I have a Cannon D400.

muckish

30 second exposure f4.0 @ ISO800. I have a intervalometer for the camera (canon 400d with 17-40mm lens) so the camera was clicking away every 40 seconds, which is handy. Allows you to watch the show as well.
I shot in RAW format and was able to adjust the exposure afterwards. The white balance was set to tungsten.

Donegal Skies

Irlpic,

I witnessed the aurora display on Tuesday night. It is dim so you need your eyes to be well dark adapted and a really clear and dark northern horizon to see it well. I viewed the display from the north coast over looking the Atlantic so it was a super dark northern horizon, there are no houses or street lights out there!! I stayed out from 20:00 to 23:15, I thought it was most active between 22:00 and 22:45.

There is a bit on what I seen:

Donegal Aurora Display

Solar activity + Bz tilted southward + Almost new Moon + Clear Skies = The Perfect Geomagnetic Storm

The above factors all came together on the first day of March 2011 and caused a day long geomagnetic storm leading to mid latitude aurora.

Tipped off by an astronomy friend as to the possible aurora display, I headed for a dark spot right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, along the north coast of Donegal. Upon arrival at the dark site at 20:00, a steady white dome of glowing light was visible just above the northern horizon. For the next few hours, the glow varied little in terms of intensity and not much structure was visible within the aurora. However, at approximately 22:00 the glow of the aurora intensified and tinges of green were detectable within it. For the next 45 minutes, shafts of light radiated from the base of the aurora and rippled across the northern horizon giving rise to the curtain effect. The intensity of the aurora was such that its refection was clearly seen on the Atlantic Ocean. With thoughts of a 90 minute drive home and work looming large in the morning, I reluctantly decided to call it a night at approximately 23:15.

In somewhat typical fashion, my camera was out of action awaiting repair so unfortunately spectacular memories not photographs are all I have to share with you on this occasion.

P.S. I have received a stern slap on the wrist for posting links to my website. I simply didn’t take the time to read the terms and conditions when signing up (completely my fault). I apologise to anyone who thinks I was using boards to advertise myself. I simply just want to offer the people of Donegal an information source for upcoming astronomical events.

irlpic

Thanks for the detailed report Donegal Skies. I was up the Lismuladuff area between the Cross and Ballybofey. The difference in the amount of stars I could see up there was unreal compared of down in the town of Ballybofey.

muckish wrote: »

30 second exposure f4.0 @ ISO800. I have a intervalometer for the camera (canon 400d with 17-40mm lens) so the camera was clicking away every 40 seconds, which is handy. Allows you to watch the show as well.
I shot in RAW format and was able to adjust the exposure afterwards. The white balance was set to tungsten.

I'll give these settings a try for definite the next time I get a chance. Cheers.

muffler

irlpic wrote: »

I was up the Lismuladuff area between the Cross and Ballybofey.

Up the top of Drahard would be the ideal spot

irlpic

muffler wrote: »

Drahard

I heard this name before. Where abouts is it?