October Night Skies

 Sometimes I Cannot help myself.....

Aurora Alert

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun's corona.

As a consequence of a strong geomagnetic storm that occurred on Tuesday, this evening is a terrific opportunity to view the aurora borealis - the northern lights - in Canada and northern United States.

Especially north of the green line on the map.  Heck you might even see this in Alabama!

Fingers-crossed for clear skies.

October Night Skies

The aurora borealis, AKA the northern lights are caused by solar activity that triggers magnetic storms.

Solar flares from activity on the surface of the sun and coronal mass ejections release electrically charged particles into space.

The solar wind carries these charged particles from the sun.

And when the particles are captured by the earth's magnetic field they collide with our atmosphere, heating-up the atoms and molecules which release energy in the form of photons, or light particles resulting in the aurora borealis.

And this happens.  

From last evening...

click on images to enlarge

Two For The Price Of One

Last evening I went out around 10 PM or thereabouts to check on the Perseid meteor shower.  I scored about a half-dozen shooters when I was paying attention. Most of the time I was fiddling with the app filters on my iPhone in an attempt to deal with the clutter of light pollution low on the north-northeast horizon.  I swear, Sturgeon Bay must've had every last damn light turned-on.  Such is tourist season.  Sigh.

If you look at this photo locate Cassiopeia in the lower right corner.  Move left and down a bit and that would be the radiant from which the Perseids originate.   Too be fair, at their height they can materialize just about anywhere.  Fingers-crossed for dark skies this evening if you want to have a go at it.

click on image for a closer look

At 12:30 AM I figured I'd take one last gander at the Perseids before hitting the sack.  I was met with this.  A spectacular display of the northern lights.  Yowza!

 

 

All I gotta say is that this was a pretty good evening for looking at the night skies.  Two for the price of one!

The Perseids will be hanging-around tonight.  Maybe the Aurora Borealis will be back too.

Dark skies!

What Was Seen In The May Night Sky

Friday evening the rains put the kibosh on all of us peninsula dwellers attempt to see the northern lights.  Saturday evening I fell asleep with the dog trying to stay up for the show.

I awoke at 1 AM Sunday morning; and stepping outside was greeted by this.  

A very different borealis display than previous ones I've witnessed.  No flickering flames; a rather diffuse colorful glowing sky instead.  Stars and constellations visible.  Pleasing but uninspired. 

A buddy from Algoma shared that thee was a short-lived (less than ten minutes) burst of activity at 11:30 PM on Saturday.  There are gone.  Photo credit: Kevin Naze.

December Night Sky

Ducked out the north side of the screen porch a couple of times last evening to look for northern lights action.

 

Nada.

 

Nevertheless, nothing is lost on stargazing….