Aurora Borealis 12/14/06

Anyone get out after sunset last night to see this?! There was a solar flare that happened Wednesday that sent a good CME that impacted yesterday morning about 9am EST - wasn't sure the numbers were going to hold all day, but by golly, they did!

The people that live at the end of our road were kind enough to let me come into their yard since they are right on Hess Lake. I went out about 7:45 to see what was going on, and the entire sky lit up. Went back, grabbed Mary (since she has been waiting almost two years to see the sky turn green!) and got back out a little after 8pm. It faded a bit, then about 8:30 kicked into gear. This first one was just before 9:00 - ISO 800, 56 seconds at 5.6.



Second one was about 5 minutes later - ISO 1600, 54 seconds at 5.6.



I packed it up shortly after that - it was starting to fade again and Mary was getting cranky since she was an hour past bedtime! Lots of curtains, color, dancing lights, and breathtaking scenes as high up as your eye could see. Not as good as 11/04 obviously, but no complaints for not seeing anything since then! First time I've had my camera out in six weeks...

Very cool, Jen. One of the advantages of living way up north. . . And, nice to see you are getting Mary more involved. When does she get her own camera?

Those are great pictures. I wish I could have seen that when we were there. But I got to see shooting stars and have never seen that before. How cold is it up there?

Dave, the lights were visible as far south as Arizona I understand - we were VERY fortunate that the skies cleared up enough to see them last night after an overcast day! Mary was going to get a digital camera for her birthday in September, but she decided she wanted a Thomas the Train set instead...Fran, it's been in the 40s for the last week, but the week before we had close to 18 inches of snow in an eight day period!

Yes, Jen, the skies were colorful and Little Traverse Bay was lit-up with reflections and the temp was 43 at 8 pm! A gorgeous evening!
After receiving 30" of snow the last week, it was nice to see the colors of the skies!
Your pictures are beautiful, and as Rod Stewart's song says, "Every picture tells a story", the skies were yakking last evening! Thanks Jen!

Approx. 4-5 hours north of you!

More of your great photography, Jen. Thanks for sharing. Don't let that camera sit idle this long again!!

I always enjoy seeing your photos posted Jen. I would love to see colors like that in the skies around my house! Thanks for sharing.

Another Aurora warning arrived today.

MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING
Issued: 17:25 UTC on 15 December 2006
Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
www.spacew.com


VALID BEGINNING AT: 18:00 UTC ON 16 DECEMBER
VALID UNTIL: 24:00 UTC (5 pm EDT) ON 17 DECEMBER

HIGH RISK PERIOD: 17 DECEMBER (UTC DAYS)
MODERATE RISK PERIOD: 16 - 17 DECEMBER

PREDICTED ACTIVITY INDICES: 20, 50, 20, 10 (16 - 19 DECEMBER)

POTENTIAL MAGNITUDE OF MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY: MODERATE TO HIGH

POTENTIAL DURATION OF THIS ACTIVITY: MAIN BELT = 12 HOURS
MINOR BELT = 12-24 HOURS

ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR AND AFTER LOCAL MIDNIGHT

EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: MODERATE AFTER LOCAL MIDNIGHT

OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO GOOD

AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM...
(THIS LINE IS VALID *ONLY* IF FAVORABLE STORM CONDITIONS OCCUR)

OREGON TO SOUTHERN IDAHO TO WYOMING TO NORTHERN NEBRASKA TO IOWA TO
ILLINOIS TO INDIANA TO OHIO TO DELAWARE.

ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM...
(THIS LINE IS VALID *ONLY* IF FAVORABLE STORM CONDITIONS OCCUR)

NORTHERN FRANCE TO CENTRAL GERMANY TO POLAND TO BELARUS TO CENTRAL RUSSIA.

NEW ZELAND AND EXTREME SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA MAY ALSO SPOT PERIODS OF
ACTIVITY MODERATE TO STRONG ACTIVITY.

SYNOPSIS...

A strong X-class flare observed on 15 December was associated with a
coronal mass ejection that is expected to impact the Earth anytime after
approximately 16:00 UTC on 16 December with a preferred impact time near
22:00 UTC on 16 December (or 5 pm EST over North America). This disturbance
is not expected to be as strong as the one that impacted on the 14th.
However, it should still be capable of producing periods of moderate to
strong auroral storming over widespread mid-latitude regions. A similar
morphology to the last disturbance is likely to be observed, with the
strongest portion of the disturbance commencing several hours after the
impact.

This warning will remain valid through 24:00 UTC (5 pm EST) on
17 December. It will be updated or allowed to expire at that time. For
updated information, visit: http://www.spacew.com/aurora/forum.html. For
real-time plots of current activity, visit: http://www.spacew.com/plots.html

It's raining here tonight - I got very lucky the other evening! I checked on Space Weather and the numbers aren't that high and there haven't hardly been any reports of activity yet this evening, so I guess I don't feel so bad.

Great shots

Gorgeous shots Jen! I was hoping to witness them last night,but it was cloudy here. Thanks for sharing!!

Jen,
AWESOME stuff! You are quite a photographer!!!
Wish we had clear enough skies here without the light pollution from the city to kill any view we would have.
Is that a timed photograph? Meaning taken over time to get the full effect?