Aurora Borealis March

muckish

Chance of aurora tonight. Current KP values are around 6 so it should be visible at mid latitudes. And it looks like the skies will be clear as well with only an 8% moon. Perfect. Fingers crossed....

muckish

muckish wrote: »

Chance of aurora tonight. Current KP values are around 6 so it should be visible at mid latitudes. And it looks like the skies will be clear as well with only an 8% moon. Perfect. Fingers crossed....

Muckish, Canadian Space Agency have Aurora cams if you fancy a gander.

off line till after dusk over there, but worth a look later.

http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/auroramax/default.asp

muckish

muckish wrote: »

Chance of aurora tonight. Current KP values are around 6 so it should be visible at mid latitudes. And it looks like the skies will be clear as well with only an 8% moon. Perfect. Fingers crossed....

Would you see them often ?

muckish

There was one on valentines night. Nothing for the past few years. Seems to be cranking up again this year. I saw a few spectacular one about 6 years ago from letterkenny. nothing like a high latitude display, but spectacular none the less. One of natures wonders to witness at least once in your lifetime. check out http://www.nightskyhunter.com/index.html

DeVore

Since I was 6 I have wanted to see the Aurora Borealis.... what time should I look and which direction? (I'm presuming north lol...)

Will it be possible to see it from the suburbs of Dublin or will the light pollution ruin it?

DeV.

muckish

muckish wrote: »

There was one on valentines night. Nothing for the past few years. Seems to be cranking up again this year. I saw a few spectacular one about 6 years ago from letterkenny. nothing like a high latitude display, but spectacular none the less. One of natures wonders to witness at least once in your lifetime. check out http://www.nightskyhunter.com/index.html

You are lucky at least you have seen them. never see them in Dublin, too much light.

also wondering, do you go to a special spot to watch or can you see them handy enough from your home?

emo72

Jake1 wrote: »

You are lucky at least you have seen them. never see them in Dublin, too much light.

jake i saw them from lucan. just drive down to the lucan golf club carpark. dark enough for a fantastic view last time they were visible

emo72

emo72 wrote: »

jake i saw them from lucan. just drive down to the lucan golf club carpark. dark enough for a fantastic view last time they were visible

Youre joking oh my god!! Cheers, thats around the corner from me I might leggit around in a bit

Fursttimer

Any sightings yet?

JJJJNR

intersting.. must take a look in a few mins

Astro1996

can be seen in Northern Ireland..

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Paul-Evans-aurora1103011_1299015084.jpg

c'mon Aurora intensify just a little bit more and we'll be able to see it

JJJJNR

what a let down...

Iancar29

Its gone down to 5 ....... Such a perfect nite for it!!

Pangea

Perfect night out if the Aurora was to drop by
Nothing up here anyways.
Where abouts in the sky is it, apart from it being north, is it relatively low in the sky or would it be higher up towards the North Star?

lolie

No sign of them down here, gonna head out again shortly. According to this http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20110215 it's looking more promising for thursday night but a good chance it could be cloudy. Hopefully not.

quercus

hi thought i would share this photo i took in 2003 (i think) the northern lights were showing further south then normal, i think i stood for a couple of hours looking up at the flickering colours as they waved across the sky. the attached photo does'nt do true justice to what the eye actually seen, it was taken with an ordinary 35mm film camera i didd'nt have a digital at the time so i had to wait to get it developed to see if i captured anything.
the photo was taken in carlow you can make out the silloutte of my house and the electrical wires and poles.

muckish

Just back from viewing for a while. It's low towards the horizon tonight. Had to find a high viewing spot, but it's definitely there tonight. Pity it hasn't intensified and sparked a storm.

Pangea

Nice Pic , Is that in Letterkenny? Next night it comes I might try and get to a good height to make sure I can see the horizon.

snowstreams

I was flicking through the records of the aurora on that alaska website. It was interesting to see how strong the aurora can get.
In late spring 2001 there was quite a lot of high KP values, ranging from 6-8.

It seems that when it goes as high as 8 the aurora should be directly overhead ireland? Is that correct, did anyone see these auroras back then? They must have been amazing from looking at the graphic on the link below.

http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20010330

Maybe we're due a Kp 8 again soon?

muckish

Pangea wrote: »

Nice Pic , Is that in Letterkenny? Next night it comes I might try and get to a good height to make sure I can see the horizon.

Northern side of Carn Hill past the Silver Tassie. The light pollution is from Ramelton and Milford.

ruanaidh

This was taken by a photographer in Ballyliffin the same night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markfnolan/5490451306/in/photostream/lightbox/

Pangea

ruanaidh wrote: »

This was taken by a photographer in Ballyliffin the same night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markfnolan/5490451306/in/photostream/lightbox/

Holy Moses :eek:

John.Icy

Nice pic there, it seem's Ulster is the boundry so far with all this activity so far this year, with no sightings in Ireland, that I know of. Pity Athy has it's own "orange" aurora's, so when the green lights come about, it'll be difficult to see. My mate lives on a hill, and can see five surrounding counties from the top, so i'll accidently organize a trip to his house to see them

And a tip to people in the North, if you can't see them straight away, take out your camera, camera's adjust much quicker to the dark than the naked eye, so if there is slight activity, the camera may pick it up in a instant, until your eyes adjust to your surroundings. This doesn't matter if activity is high, and an aurora is clearly visable.

Pangea

John.Icy wrote: »

with no sightings in Ireland, that I know of.

The sighting above is in 'Ireland' .
It was taken in Donegal. :rolleyes:

John.Icy

Pangea wrote: »

The sighting above is in 'Ireland' .
It was taken in Donegal. :rolleyes:

Ah yes, what a dull moment by me

The boundry for sightings seems to be Ulster :p

Pangea

John.Icy wrote: »

The boundry for sightings seems to be Ulster

Thats more like it. :cool:

Pangea

ruanaidh wrote: »

This was taken by a photographer in Ballyliffin the same night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markfnolan/5490451306/in/photostream/lightbox/

Heres the photo again for those who are too lazy to click the link
Northern Lights seen from Donegal

John.Icy

Nice chance of aurora's tonight, for ye northern folks, CME impact last night, strongly southerly tilted IMF field (so the KP level doesn't have to be very high.)....keep an eye out, hopefully there are some clear slots. Hopefully also the CME impact isn't wearing off now, he aurora charts are less appealing than earlier today.


The aurora traffic lights chart is flashing yellow for mid lattitudes, which is good.

Aurora oval has exploded into life, auroras should be visible over north ulster, unless the now tilted North IMF field will ruin chances, though it'll probally tilt south again.

muckish

John.Icy wrote: »

Nice chance of aurora's tonight, for ye northern folks, CME impact last night, strongly southerly tilted IMF field (so the KP level doesn't have to be very high.)....keep an eye out, hopefully there are some clear slots. Hopefully also the CME impact isn't wearing off now, he aurora charts are less appealing than earlier today.


The aurora traffic lights chart is flashing yellow for mid lattitudes, which is good.

Aurora oval has exploded into life, auroras should be visible over north ulster, unless the now tilted North IMF field will ruin chances, though it'll probally tilt south again.

Thanks for the head's up there. Caught a break in the clouds and yes there was an aurora on the horizon. Very similar to last week. A green band low on the horizon. It started to snow and it was about 1 degree at the viewing spot so I packed up after about 20 mins and headed home, frozen as I had rushed out of the house without my gloves. Will process the photos tomorrow and see if there's anything worthwhile there.

muckish

Kp value predicted to increase to 5. Possible auroras tonight again. Skies please please please clear!

John.Icy

muckish wrote: »

Kp value predicted to increase to 5. Possible auroras tonight again. Skies please please please clear!

Nah i think they mean it could go back to kp 5, but after every hour they'll probally drop it back. The CME is weakenng now, so I doubt auroras will be visble. And it's gong to be a cloudy, possibly white night for ye northern folks though, never say never, maybe kp will keep up tonight

Also, lovely photo's.. But i hate that it's always the northern horizon with the cloud banks, (but stll nice aurora), happens here all the time, no clouds anywhere else, yet a huge bank of cloud to the north

Maybe though, aurora oval is very active atm, so theres probally an aurora over Northern Ireland right now, but one its day, two its couldy, hope the acivtity keeps up, and the solar wind is picking up, maybe the solar wind is arriving earlier than thought.