Btw, I have only ever seen the aurora once. I was wandering around in the mountains one night in 2003. Gorgeous night. The Moon was low and full, making the high icy clouds turns into wisps of glowing diamond light, framing the sky on one side with mountains on the other. And in the center, faint red drapery, gossamer threads of color with here and there a hint of green – a taste of the glory of a full aurora. That image has been in my mind ever since that night.

Which is nice, but why tell you? That night that I saw the aurora, I was lost in the woods somewhere between Loveland and Estes Park.

I’ve seen the aurorae on two occasions in my life… a cruise to Alaska in 2001, and there was about a week or so in … 1989? Definitely March but might have been ’88 or ’90… when the sky just went nuts. I remember looking up at the stars as a cloudbank rolled in and thinking that was it for the night until I realized that the “cloudbank” was glowing, and I could see the stars through it. A sheet of white aurora covering the entire sky – and this was in southern Connecticut. The following couple of nights also had good displays (mostly large amorphous patches of red in the northern part of the sky), but nothing like that first night.

But I’ve never seen the ribbons or any sort of real motion from the lights. I’d love to see something like that.

Hope you catch one some night…

Actually, its such a phenomenal experience you ought to consider a trip northward into the auroral zone (during the optimum conditions in the fall) as the Sun peaks this cycle. It wouldn’t require a big spiel trip to Canada hoping to catch a good display, like over a vacation period – the very energetic CME’s that strike Earth tend to expand the auroral ring and shove most of the action toward more southerly latitudes (say, like Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan) so you could easily prepare for a quick jaunt northwards as soon as news of a major CME has erupted and is coming our way. It takes a bit of flexibility in the planning and good luck with the weather (great displays easily deliver as much light as a full Moon, so unless the Moon is itself near full, it won’t bother it much – any time during last and first quarter is choice). You would have something like 20 to 40 hours before it arrived to get to a good spot – only a matter of a few hundred miles’ drive north from your location could nail it.

Here in rural southern Wisconsin I’ve witnessed a few dozen displays over the last two Solar maxima, of which three were definitely in the awesome category. A great display involves the entire sky…definitely worth a reasonable effort to get under the main action. And by all means bring a camera+tripod that can take long exposures….unlike total solar eclipses, you’ll have lots of time to fiddle with it and grab some splendid shots.

AP

Thankyou Bad Astronomer (or do you prefer Phil?)

We like you too!

Great time lapse.

This truly extraordinary video is just rubbing it in. Gosh it is beautiful.

Joe in Alaska

Clear skies, Alan