Possible Northern Lights Tonight

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Tim Seaver

Tim Seaver

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Forecaster Comments: The effects of solar event on the 30th of Nov should reach Earth around 19hr UT on 2nd of Dec. That means the US should see the effects of it on the local night of the 2nd of Dec.
This was not a large event, but we were caught off guard on 26 Oct when no recorded event produced a number of good auroral displays.
We would expect at least an index of 4 or larger during the 24 hrs following the arrival of this event.
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Hopefully we will have some clear skies and a good light show!
 
Thanks for posting this Tim! Do you think you would have to go to a peak in the whites to see it? Also what time of night do they appear?
 
freighttrain48 said:
Thanks for posting this Tim! Do you think you would have to go to a peak in the whites to see it? Also what time of night do they appear?
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They can appear any time. Check this out from time to time:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapN.gif

If your part of the world is red or yellow, go outside! You don't have to be on a mountain, but it needs to be dark. Look between NW and NE. The moon will be up early tonight, so it may work against us...
 
freighttrain48 said:
Thanks for posting this Tim! Do you think you would have to go to a peak in the whites to see it? Also what time of night do they appear?
Click to expand...

The first time I saw northern lights I was in southern Maine, driving north on I-95about an hour after dark. I thought that the city of Portland might be on fire, they were so bright.

The second time I saw them, I driving south on back roads to Route 1 in Maine and saw them from the coast near Bucks Harbor. That, too, was an hour or two after sunset in the fall.

Hope we'll see them when we are in New Boston (NH) tonight!
 
Last edited:
Thanks!

Thanks for the tip, Tim! If I can tap you a little more, any tips on shooting them? ISO settings, F-stops, length of exposure? I know this info is readily available elsewhere, but I have marveled at some of your shots and would like to hear your take on it. Thanks!

KDT
 
In a nutshell - I generally try to get as far from urban light sources as possible, use a fast wide angle lens ( at least 4.0), and shoot using ISO in the 1600-3200 range ( if you can), exposing for anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds or so. Experiment and adjust to taste. Serves many. :)
 
Tim Seaver said:
In a nutshell - I generally try to get as far from urban light sources as possible, use a fast wide angle lens ( at least 4.0), and shoot using ISO in the 1600-3200 range ( if you can), exposing for anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds or so. Experiment and adjust to taste. Serves many. :)
Click to expand...
I've seen some very bright impressive displays, even here in central NY during past solar cycles. Sometimes all you see is a northern glow, which may have some slow movement. The most spectacular are multi-color rapidly rippling and moving sheets, or an exploding bomb-burst effect. I've seen multiple rapid fire bomb-bursts occurring simultaneously all over the sky, even down to the far southern horizon of the sky. I kept expecting to hear the booms that never came. When those displays happen you need a fairly fast exposure or all you get is a fuzzy smear.
 
Nessmuk said:
The most spectacular are multi-color rapidly rippling and moving sheets, or an exploding bomb-burst effect. I've seen multiple rapid fire bomb-bursts occurring simultaneously all over the sky, even down to the far southern horizon of the sky. I kept expecting to hear the booms that never came. When those displays happen you need a fairly fast exposure or all you get is a fuzzy smear.
Click to expand...

Very cool - I have never seen the bomb-burst effect, but it must be pretty spectacular! The coolest one I remember seeing was years ago, before I was into photography, right in my backyard in VT - a shimmering green waterfall stretching into outer space - it had a distinct "pouring" motion that pretty much blew my mind ;)

BTW - Anyone can sign up for the free Aurora Alert Emails from the Geophysical Institute.
 
Nessmuk said:
The most spectacular are multi-color rapidly rippling and moving sheets, or an exploding bomb-burst effect. I've seen multiple rapid fire bomb-bursts occurring simultaneously all over the sky, even down to the far southern horizon of the sky. I kept expecting to hear the booms that never came.
Click to expand...

I experienced something like this on a half-frozen pond in central NH in the early '90s. I took a look at the sky from our deck after midnight, saw that it was multi-colored, and paddled out to the middle of the pond, where I stabilized my canoe by resting its back end on the ice-shelf, then leaned back and enjoyed the show. What I saw reminded me more of a giant Vegas neon sign than bomb-burst, with big sections of the sky flashing bright and dimming, in an irregular pattern, but very quickly.
 
I saw them repeatedly one winter during the late 90s when I was going to grad school in SW New Hampshire. Many of us in the ES program at Antioch slept outside when possible at the Harris Center in Hancock. I recall seeing the comet that was visible in our sky for a time, incredible full moons, and the Northern Lights a number of times all within one year on Wednesday and Thursday nights. No pictures or video I'm sad to say ....
 
The good news is that the sun is nearing the peak of it's solar cycle, so for the next two or three years, opportunities will come much more frequently than they have since 2005.

There were many great storms during 2000 through 2004, and the cycle is typically 11 years or so, which means that 2011 through 2015 should be good as well.

Especially interesting though is the fact that the solar minimum was the deepest in many cycles, with a near record number of days where there were NO sunspots on the sun. How the sun rebounds is for folks with more knowledge than I to figure out...but the sun has been quite peppered recently!

Spaceweather.com does a great job of giving a summary of solar events, as well as daily sunspot counts. It's part of my daily read...
 
w7xman said:
The good news is that the sun is nearing the peak of it's solar cycle, so for the next two or three years, opportunities will come much more frequently than they have since 2005.
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Some of us who depend on the 'Net for our daily bread are not quite so enthusiastic at the prospect of a repeat of the August 28-September 2, 1859 Superstorm:

"The French telegraph communications at Paris were greatly affected, and on interrupting the circuit of the conducting wire strong sparks were observed. The same thing occurred at the same time at all the telegraphic station in France…
. . .
Singular Effect of the Uarora Borealis on the Telegraph Wires. New York. August 29, The Superintendent of the Canadian Telegraph Company's line telegraphs as follows in relation to the effect of the Aurora Borealis last night: '…so completely were the wires under the influence of the Aurora Borealis, that it was found utterly impossible to communicate between the telegraph stations, and the line had to be closed.' The same difficulty prevailed as far South as Washington.
. . .
During the auroral display on Thursday night in Boston some curious phenomena were witnessed in connection with the telegraph wires. The following conversation, says the Boston Traveler, between the Boston and Portland operators on the American telegraph line, will give an idea of the effect of the Aurora Borealis, on the working of the telegraph wires: Boston operator, (to Portland operator)--"Please cut off your battery entirely from the line for fifteen minutes." Portland operator-"Will do so. It is now disconnected." Boston-"Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?" Portland-Better than with our batteries on. -Current comes and goes gradually." Boston-"My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the Aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."
Portland-"Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?" Boston-"Yes. Go ahead."
The wire was then worked for about two hours without the usual batteries, on the auroral current, working better than with the batteries connected. The current varied, increasing and decreasing alternately, but by graduating the adjustment to the current, a sufficiently steady effect was obtained to work the line very well. This is the first instance on record of more than a word or two having been transmitted with the auroral current. The usual effects of the electric storm were manifested, such as reversing the poles of the batteries, etc…"
 
sardog1 said:
Some of us who depend on the 'Net for our daily bread are not quite so enthusiastic at the prospect of a repeat of the August 28-September 2, 1859 Superstorm:
Click to expand...
The influx of charged particles (that causes the aurora) also induces large currents in the ground. Systems that use ground returns (old telegraph and telephone systems used a single wire and a ground return--modern systems tend to use two wires independent of the ground) are particularly prone to malfunction or damage. The longer the distance between the endpoints, the greater the effects.

Massive power blackouts are possible these days because the ground currents can saturate transformer cores and cause them to overheat. High voltage power lines also tend to traverse long distances...

Doug
 
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