Oooooooh... Ahhhhhh...

“

For all of us who didn't get to see a combination aurora AND meteor shower... This is my new 'wallpaper' image. Isn't it a beauty?

There's more, too (four pages' worth and counting).”

“Nice pic tilt, would be nice to see the real thing. Maybe in my next life.”

“wow.. very nice.. so this is your work?.. great pics!!.,..”

“acutally.....for us poor people who can't make it to alaska, there is supposed to be a huge solar flare from the sun that will produce an aurora borealis effect. im not too sure when, but ITS COMMING!!!AHHHH”

“aurora borealis in GA ??? that would be SOME flare”

“Nah... just a hobby. I got into Astronomy about 20 years ago. In fact, that's how I got hooked on Winter camping and hiking. Winter is when all that nasty haze blows away and the galaxy looks like a carpet of diamonds.

I figured "Hey! I'm already out here freezin'! I just need a few more things so I won't have to drive back into town..."

Then I met this Girl who was into Backpacking about 1984, and here I am, LOL”

“Yep! Two flares on the way... you lucky Yankees, you!

That last flare was seen in North Georgia, but I'm not so sure about these next ones....


NORTHERN LIGHTS: A powerful solar explosion on Nov. 22nd hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space and toward our planet -- possibly joining another CME already en route. The expanding clouds could trigger geomagnetic activity when they sweep past Earth on Nov. 24th and/or 25th.
High-latitude sky watchers are likely to see Northern Lights this weekend, especially during the hours around local midnight on Saturday and Sunday.
Prospects for middle-latitude observers are less certain. Tune in to SpaceWeather.com for details and updates.

SpaceWeather.com”

“So tonight's the night for me to have insomnia. Ok, I think I can handle that!”

“Wouldn't ya know it!

Right After I posted that last notice, I get this:

Space Weather News for Nov. 24, 2001
http://www.spaceweather.com

Did you see strange lights in the sky before dawn on Saturday? If so, you were probably watching an outbreak of auroras. A pair of fast-moving coronal mass ejections, arriving somewhat earlier than expected, buffeted
Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 24th at 0530 UT (12:30 a.m. EST). The resulting geomagnetic storm spawned Northern Lights as far south as Arkansas in the United States.

Although the ongoing storm will probably subside during the hours ahead, high-latitude sky watchers (including those along the northern tier of US states) should remain alert for auroras Saturday night and Sunday morning.”

“It poured rain all night! Waaaa!!! Maybe next time *sigh*.”

“Well, it's gotta rain somewhere sometime or else we'll All be in trouble, LOL. Right now, we're having a drought. The reservoir 15 miles NE of Augusta is about 15-20 feet below normal.

I know what you mean, tho'... It seems like Murphy's Law works overtime when it comes to the weather and Astronomy. We KNOW it works overtime when it comes to the weather and Backpacking!

It works better than any Rain Dance I ever heard of, *G*. All I have to do is *think* about camping out and clouds start to form, LOL!”

“Yeah, less than a quarter of an inch of rain all month and it had to rain last night! We needed it so bad and still need so much more but the timing stinks. Usually that happens whenever our scout troop plans a car-camping weekend. LOL! Oh well. Better luck next time I guess.”

“There's bound to be more. The Sun just passed it's peak, I believe. You can sign up for the email notification at SpaceWeather.com and you'll get a day or two head start. They've got some outstanding images there also... for folks like me who've never seen one.

One Of These Days... !”

“I saw one once, when I still lived in Michigan. I would love to be able to see it again and for my son to see it.”

“Wow, Tilt, that's really impressive. Haven't seen a real live aurora yet....sometimes soon I hope. Does it make any noise or sound?...I read somewhere that it emits a sound.

I can now understand why some Eskimo societies (long long time ago) were scared of the Auroras. They carried knives for self protection, and threw dog excrement at the Aurora. They even said that if a person get too close to an Aurora, it'll chop off their head.

On the other hand, they respected the Aurora since they believed that it controlled the weather and game.”