Aurora Borealis
 

A few weeks ago I went about 2 hour’s north of the twin cities hoping to see the Aurora. Just after midnight I got a pretty good show. This is the first time I have ever seen them and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Well worth the 18 degree temperatures! I am waiting for the sun to ejaculate another CME and I am planning to go up nort and spend an entire night doing some time lapse.

I wish the moon hadnt been so bright. I think the images would be a lot better.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1332275065.jpg

I also need to spend some time and update my watermark in Lightroom.

Wow!

Awesome.

It's pretty amazing the first time you see it

thanks for adding to my bucket-list..wow!!!!!

...Icy sky at night."

Definitely on my bucket list....

How do you know best time and place to see it?

You can look at SOLARHAM.com / SOLARCYCLE 24.com / Solar Cycle 24 / Spaceweather / Amateur Radio VHF Aurora Website / Sunspots / Solar Flares it has a nice map that shows a view line. I also have an app on my iPhone that tells me when a CME is expected to hit earth.

Cool!

Nice pic. What latitude were you at? Excuse my ignorance, but are the twin cities Minneapolis/St Pauls? They are at 45 deg. I've lived my life at 51 deg and never seen the lights, even when I've been looking over the last few weeks.

They are worth the effort to see. I have seen them twice. Once from a dock in Central Ontario & once on a flight from somewhere in the west to Toronto. The port side of the plane had ringside seats for about an hour.

Ian

I'm originally from up North in Minnesota. Though I've seen this several times, it never gets old- Always a thrill.

witnessed them once in college...they scared the sand out of me as I walked across a dark parking lot in Brookings, SD. Waves and waves of light...if only my color vision was better it would have been even more spectacular!

Would it be rude to ask what your settings were? thats a beauty.

I spent two summers in Juneau, AK and got to see it several times - incredible! No one minds getting woken up at 2:00 AM to witness it. The farther North you are the more colors you will see.

Not at all. Nikon D300 nikkor 24-70 24mm @ f2.8 13 second exposure at ISO 200

And thank you for the compliment.

I was only a 2 hour drive north. So about 45deg. I think some of it has to do with luck. I went out a few nights later and saw nothing.

Spectacular picture. THis is certainly on my wishlist of things to see in person.

Uh... where do I see "when a CME is expected to hit earth" on that website?

Obviously the farther north you are the better... is there any particular time of year that is better? Or is all dependent on solar flares? Does east-west matter... say is anywhere in Canada a good place to see these (when they are happening)?

Thanks!

Maybe someone who knows more about it will chime in but... I only use that solarham site for the map to see how far south it is supposed to go. You are supposed to be able to see it anywhere north of the dotted red line. As for time of year, it does not really matter. Winter time has longer nights so if something is supposed to happen at 6AM in January you would see it, not so much in July. You can see them all over the northern latitudes... I hear they are really bright in Alaska so I am sure Canada is a good place. Spaceweather.com will tell you when a CME is predicted to hit the earth.

Hope that helps...