On second thought, at least he’s a jedi and not a sith.

Very well done, Thomas Koidhis – thanks.

(Incidentally, saw an aurora calander in the local newsagent the other day – &, no, I’m not referring there to one about a girl with that name! )

I agree.

“and their beauty is enhanced, magnified, by knowing what it is that causes them. ”

That is an unsupported assertion. I would have thought that the general disinterest in science displayed by the public would have already informed you that a majority of the people in this country are not like you. Clearly that message has not gotten through. Beauty appreciation and ‘crafting’ appreciation are two absolutely separate issues. Having watched movies with actors who are all about dissecting camera angles and appropriate scores and such I can tell you that dwelling on the details of how something came to be can detract from experiencing it as a totality. And I have no intention of ever investigating how sausage is made. Knowing what causes an aurora will not necessarily enhance or detract from your experience thereof.

I know because I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to have spent almost twenty years living in the arctic (1980-1998) and to have witnessed almost nightly aurora, including a few truly stunning, spectacular, events. During those rare extreme events, (compared to the nightly, garden variety bright aurora) the entire night sky was covered in pulsing ribbons and streams of bright light that was centred directly overhead — bright, curtains of green, pink and red that moved so fast, both horizontally and vertically, they absolutely filled the sky.

While the extreme events were generally short lived (20-30 minutes) they were always part of ordinary events that would go on for hours and hours, albeit at reduced intensity and scope, but still gorgeous.

The effect was further enhanced because the aurora was bright enough to be reflected by the snow underfoot. Wow, I still get goosebumps when I think about those events and, for anyone interested in aurora tourism, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and other communities around 60N latitude are excellent locations to observe bright aurora (winter is better because of dark skies). Contact the governments of Nunuvut or Yukon for more information.

On the other hand, I also remember nights when an ordinary aurora was simply a pain in the butt because the light so badly affected seeing — trying to observe deep sky objects with a telescope was a waste of time because of auroral light pollution. Unfortunately, this happened on a lot of otherwise perfectly clear nights.

Also, interestingly enough, during the years when I lived in Cambridge Bay, NWT (69N lat.) I remember rarely seeing the aurora because I was too far north. When I did see the aurora, it was just a faint glow on the southern horizon.

As well, in all the years that I observed those lights, I never ever heard them make any sounds.

Cheers

Gary 7