Aurora Prospects 2012

Rikand

was there an aurora tonight ? An Acquaintance of mine is "claiming" he saw it north of Athlone around 2 AM

Mountainsandh

The night before last more so... Although how to be sure what your friend was looking at weren't remnants of daylight, or the very first hints/glows of sunrise...

SUBSIDING STORM: A geomagnetic storm that began on June 16th when a double CME hit Earth's magnetic field is finally subsiding. At the height of the disturbance on June 17th, Northern Lights descended as far south in the USA as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Utah, Maryland, Nebraska, Washington, and the Dakotas.

muckish

Rickylovesuall wrote: »

was there an aurora tonight ? An Acquaintance of mine is "claiming" he saw it north of Athlone around 2 AM

If he saw a blueish light then it was probably Noctilucent Clouds.

Elmer Blooker

muckish wrote: »

If he saw a blueish light then it was probably Noctilucent Clouds.

I think the blueish light was the sky getting bright, last night was so clear that even in Dublin (with it's street lights) there was a glow on the northern horizon at 1.30 when I was going to bed.
edit: I didn't the mountainandh post until after I posted.

lolie

I was outside at 1'ish last night.
There was a faint noctilucent display on the northern horizon which left a nice glow low down in the sky.
I'd say thats what rickys friend seen.
Noticed them a few nights the past week so if the sky clears 2night people should head out and look for them.

Iancar29

X1.4 FLARE! Supsot facing directly at earth , so the
CME is likely to be Earth Directed too.

Look at this beauty!




OH for it to be winter and clear and moonless....
Still though, still in with a chance in the North over the weekend!

Iancar29

The Long duration X1.4 yesterday afternoon produced a strong CME headed directly at earth.

FOrecast ATM is actually

GOOOOD!

for some clear skies tomorrow night.


If the impact is strong enough and the IMF tilts south... aurora could well be seen even in the areas of the south!! ... ( KP - 8 or so )


So talk to friends, family... get some transport organised... get some cameras... get some flasks of Lyons GOld blend tea at the ready!... WE COULD BE IN FOR AN INTERESTED NIGHT!!! ...

Only things against us is the moon and the lack of night time hours.. but ah well!.. I'd say in the southern hemisphere theyll get some great views.

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8oiT5WGrns

Harps

Will the sky not be too bright for any sort of decent display here? Don't know about further south but the north sky is still bright all night here when its clear

Iancar29

Harps wrote: »

Will the sky not be too bright for any sort of decent display here? Don't know about further south but the north sky is still bright all night here when its clear

If its strong as expected to be ( KP 6- 8 ) Id imagine the aroura would come down far enough into darker skies , in your case over you ha.

V_Moth

Looks good. Would it likely be visible from the Wicklow Mountains or is it case of heading north?

Edit: From SpaceWeather:

REVISED FORECAST: The CME launched toward Earth by yesterday's X-flare is moving faster than originally thought. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have revised their forecast accordingly, advancing the cloud's expected arrival time to 09:17 UT (5:17 am EDT) on Saturday, July 14th. Weekend auroras are likely.

Harps

No harm having a look I suppose, got a new camera last week so a good chance to give it a test run

muckish

Harps wrote: »

No harm having a look I suppose, got a new camera last week so a good chance to give it a test run

WHat you get? I'm looking forward to testing out a new 10mm fisheye f2.8 lens.

Iancar29

muckish wrote: »

WHat you get? I'm looking forward to testing out a new 10mm fisheye f2.8 lens.

Cool ! ... 2.8 not bad! ..

V_Moth Looks good. Would it likely be visible from the Wicklow Mountains or is it case of heading north?

Good question ... as my thought would be that the increase in height will cancel out the fact of going that bit north?... but in saying that , the glow of Dublin will always be there, not been up there on clear night to judge how well the sky will be. So i'll probably head north ... Gonna looks at google earth now try find a good spot.

Pangea

Well, is tonight going as planned?

Iancar29

Pangea wrote: »

Well, is tonight going as planned?

YUP! ... id be camping out up north if i was there!

http://helios.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/

Pangea

Nice, Hopefully il see it from my house again like the last time

homer simpson

Batteries charged, memory cards cleared, flask of tea on the brew. Northern lights let be having ya...

lolie

Kp-6 now and imf south.
All we need now is dark skies.
Cloud slowly startin to clear

Pangea

Sky still a bright blue

DarkDusk

(Hope ye don't mind if I join the party!)

Here's a link with a Aurora forecast: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapN.gif

Does this look good/bad for tonight? I've never read one of these before... Anyway, clear skies here in Mayo, but not very dark yet. Hopefully tonight will be a winner!:p

Also, if anyone's interested: http://www.astronomy.ie/moonjup2012.php

mallards

Just back from the top of the Sperrins in Tyrone, still quite clear of to the the west. I thought I had a quick glimpse of something on the northern horizon but after half an hour of nothing, we gave up. Still, its a really beautiful night out there with not a sound and lots of stars out tonight.

Mallards

Discodog

UK Aurora watch have not issued any alerts - just checked the site as I didn't get an email.

muckish

No aurora visible last night. Too bright on the northern Horizon. But there were Noctilucent Clouds clouds visible around 3am and a beautiful Monn Jupiter conjunction. So it was a good nights viewing in the end.

lolie

Nice pics muckish.
Didnt notice any noctilucent clouds down my side.
No lights but seen a few shooting stars, bright iridium flares and venus and jupiter rising near the moon so not all bad.

Discodog

Aurora Watch have just issued a red alert for tonight

lolie

Kp-7 at the minute and the IMF gone strong south so heres hopin for clear skies.
Looks like a band of cloud rollin in from the southwest though.

Redsunset

Would love to be on the ISS.

PixelTrawler

Spotted this on Space Weather

http://spaceweather.com/gallery/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=70141

Says taken the 8th August in Omagh, Northern Ireland

tylercollins

Solyad wrote: »

Spotted this on Space Weather

http://spaceweather.com/gallery/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=70141

Says taken the 8th August in Omagh, Northern Ireland

Have Paul as a friend on Facebook and just checked there and he did take it on the 8th..

he said the following with the picture

"it certainly was visible naked eye, the 0200 outburst anyway with just the faintest of colour"

PixelTrawler

http://spaceweather.com/gallery/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=71166


Also in general, some stunning images on spaceweather of the last two nights Auroras