The Night Sky Guy

Aurora Time-Lapse Video

Skywatcher in Denmark created this beautiful video from 100 separate photos he took of the Northern Lights last night. check it out. Note; click on the # 2 at the lower left to see the video.

Forecasters are calling for35% chance of a second round of Auroras  to appear sometime late tonight (Aug.4)  into early morning hours.  A second Coronal Mass  Ejection that was launched by the Sun on Sunday will arrive at Earth within the next few hours, possibly sparking  more colourful displays. no guarantees what will happen but worth a peek through your window tonight!

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Update: Auroras Spotted Over Europe

Reports are coming in from Denmark and Norway that the Northern Lights show has started to appear there – where it is already late night. Check out the latest photo from Denmark skywatcher here.  Thanks to spaceweather.com from the heads up.

Here is the Aurora Oval as it appear LIVE to a satellite now over Northern America. The darker and bigger the red blob. the more intense and widespread the displays. Check to see if your area is under the aurora area.

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Aurora Alert Tonight

On Sunday morning the Sun’s entire Earth facing side erupted in activity which resulted in it belching out a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that has Earth in  its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story. The CME will be in two parts with the first section already having slammed into Earth’s magnetic field around 1:30 pm EDT today. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but forecasters are calling on  45% chance of geomagnetic activity int  overnight hours tonight.

Snapshot from NASA satellite of August 1st solar blast

Best chance to spot the northern lights is to look towards your local northern horizon late night – usually around midnight. Those living in high latitude have a better chance of  seeing something than those living closer to the equator- this usually means that folks living in Canada and bordering states are better placed for even fainter, more commonly occuring auroras.  The display may be faint so if you are out in the dark countryside you have a better chance of catching it . What will it look like? Most likely it will appear as a green or pinkish glow with shimmering curtains of light that spread across the lower sky.  Of course clear skies help!

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Northern Lights Show Possible

Sunday update: Latest forecast predicts a 25% chance of auroras when the CME hits later tonight. A large Coronal Mass Ejection (supercharged gas cloud) was thrown off the Sun Thursday that is heading towards Earth.  when it arrives at the end of the weekend there is a chance that it may produce colourful lights in the sky. Sunday and Monday nights are when current prediction call for the CM to arrive at our planet.  Will you get to see anything? The more northerly your location,  the better the chance you will see auroras.  Stay tuned for further updates.

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Aurora Alert this Weekend

According to solar scientists a series of eruptions emanating from a group of sunspots (see image below) on Wednesday sent a billion ton cloud of charged particles hurling through interplanetary space towards Earth. No word yet if it will in fact trigger auroras but the chance is there and so the only way to know is to actually look at the sky tonight and Saturday night too.

Series of images taken by SOHO sun-watching satellite showing sunspots that triggered current Auroras alert

Best chance to spot the northern lights is to look towards your local northern horizon late night – usually around midnight. Those living in high latitude have a better chance of  seeing something than those living closer to the equator- this usually means that folks living in Canada and bordering states are better placed for even fainter, more commonly occuring auroras.  The display may be faint so if you are out in the dark countryside you have a better chance of catching it . What will it look like? Since it was a medium-small sized solar eruption it may manifest itself as a green glow with shimmering curtains of light that spread across the lower sky.

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Solar Eruption Heading To Earth

It appears that the Sun has belched a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that may have Earth in  its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story.

The solar eruption happened in the early morning hours today around a newly formed group of sunspots,  and indications are that it should slam into Earth’s magnetic field around December 18th. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but might still cause some colourful auroras so folks living in high-latitude areas – like Canada should be on alert. At this point experts are waiting for more data to come in from Sun watching satellites about the blast itself to know exactly if it will hit Earth directly or will it be just a glancing blow.  Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

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Peak Time for Northern Lights

Early Autumn nights are some of the best times to catch sight of the beautiful Aurora Borealis. These shimmering and dancing ghostly glows in the night tend to increase in frequency at this time of the year, for as yet an unknown reason. And when they occur more often, there is a better chance for folks in more southerly latitudes to see the stronger storms. In fact sometimes auroras can be seen as far south as Florida and Mexico.  For those in Canada, you might be surprised to learn, cities near the US border can get good displays at least once a season.

CME thrown off Sun

These cosmic light shows begin on the surface of the Sun where giant clouds of high energy particles are produced and ejected into space. Known as Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs, these clouds travel at breakneck speeds reaching Earth in only a matter of two or three days. We have sun-watching satellites that keep tabs on when these CMEs are heading our way, but we only can get a few days warning at best. When they do arrive within Earth’s vicinity, our planet’s magnetic field acts as force field protecting us from their potentially damaging radiation, but the particles do get funnelled down through the poles along the magnetic lines. The more energy the particles have, the deeper they can penetrate into our atmosphere. hey collide with oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air and make them glow in shades of green, pink, red, and violet colours.

To catch these elusive displays, take a look outside around local midnight, facing the northern horizon in a dark location away from light pollution. There are no guarantees that you will see one on any old clear night, but there is a way to hedge your bets, and that is by signing up for an email alert at www.spaceweather.com . It is a great service and gives you a fighting chance to hunt down an aurora display  and not waist your time.  Also check out my Sky Tonight page and examine the real-time LIVE satellite shot looking down at auroras happening right now over the North American continent. You can tell if there are any Northern Lights activity going on in your neck of the woods.

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