January Aurora

Four images through my window.

I heard there were aurora last night, so at about 4am I took some very shaky photos. I think the pale whitish dots near the top of the photos was a star or planet that left a trail. The yellow colour was a neighbour’s lights.

I don’t have a tripod and as I have Parkinsons disease I can’t hold the camera still. So this is propped up on a pillow, 1 minute exposure. Sorry they are so blurred.

More space weather

Aurora glow earlier this week.

Space Weather News for Oct. 9, 2024
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: An X-class solar flare on Oct. 8th hurled a fast-moving CME directly toward Earth. NOAA and NASA models agree that it could arrive as early as Oct. 10th, with NOAA forecasters warning of a possibly severe geomagnetic storm. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

The sky keeps shining green.

How the sky changed colour last night, apologies for the Parkinsons shake. I was lying in bed with nothing to prop my phone on. The best photo I took was the last (in the middle) about 2am?I couldn’t see much with the naked eye, but there had been a forecast of auroras on spaceweather.com so I chanced a snap or two, they started as a normal blue for a 60 second exposure, but then over the next few minutes it gradually changed to green.

Note the sun is at solar maximum where the magnetic north and south fields are increasingly entangled and cause coronal mass ejections, solar flares from the Sun’s surface. This weekends aurora were caused by an Earth facing set of flares.

Splodgy skies

More boring splodgy night skies. The white line is the moon, just shows how bad my camera shake is! 60 second exposures, went from greenish to slight pink to blue. So maybe there will be better views outside the city?

I’m afraid I’m getting a bit obsessed with the Aurora Borealis. But since we are still in a stream of particles from the sun I might as well try and take pictures when I can. The next solar maximum is in 22 years and I might not be around to see that. Sorry these pictures don’t show amazing structures but I’m pleased just to get the colours here in the middle of a city, x

Auroras!

With my sister. We went outside looking for auroras. A lot of people living nearby had taken photos and posted them on Facebook. The sky just looked a bit cloudy to me, but a friend said she thought the sky just looked a bit odd until she took a long exposure. So I set my camera on night with a wide apature and it stacked pictures for 60 seconds. I shake too much so had to try and find a position to hold the camera still, hence the blurry shots. I ended up shoving my right hand against the door jamb and just pushing the button with my left, shaky hand. On the last one I caught greenish streaks. My sister took a couple of these. No real structure but proof you can see aurora even in the city with a long enough exposure! One off the bucket list!

Clear sky

It’s a clear sky tonight, the clocks go forward in the UK today. I would love to see the Aurora Borealis which has been visible in lower latitudes over the last few nights, while it has stayed stubbornly cloudy here. The information about Auroral displays and asteroids etcetera you could check out a website called https://spaceweather.com

There is also a large asteroid passing between the Earth and the Moon tonight, but as that distance is around 250,000 miles and it’s about 264 meters across there’s no danger. I guess with a clear sky astronomers will be able to watch it.

I always watch the BBC programme ‘The Sky at Night’ every month when it’s on. But they seem to have stopped showing it. More dumbing down? How do you find out information if its not shared.

Bucket list wish

One day I want to see

Shimmering Northern lights

Lighting up the sky

The Aurora Borealis, bright.

Green or red or white…

Different colours, different elements

Curtains of particles

Flying on Earth’s magnetic field

Falling to land at the poles

Glowing glory

Suns power manifested in air

My bucket list wish.

Seen in England last week

But hidden by clouds….

Auroral display

I’ve always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and last night and tonight might have been the chance. But two things are against it. I live too far south and its cloudy. The reason why it might have been visible is because there is a large area of sunspots that had come into view around the edge of the Sun. It has strong magnetic North and South currents which increases the chance and strength of Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar flares. These could be directed Earth-wards and spark Aurora in both the North (Aurora Borealis) and South (Aurora Australis).

I’d like to see the nothern lights one day. It’s on my bucket list. More information can be found at Spaceweather.com.