Aurora Borealis Last Night?

“Did any of you Yankees see anything overhead last night? <GRIN>


Space Weather News for July 23, 2004
http://spaceweather.com" TARGET="_blank"> http://spaceweather.com

Hours after a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on
July 22nd, a geomagnetic storm began, sparking auroras over parts of North America. Sky watchers spotted Northern Lights as far south as Minnesota, Washington and Michigan in the United States. Some particularly nice purple auroras appeared over Wisconsin.

The giant sunspot that triggered this activity is now crossing the middle
of the sun and could unleash more strong solar flares and CMEs in the days
ahead. Amateur astronomers using safe solar observing techniques should
have no trouble seeing the 'spot, which is wider than the planet Jupiter.

Visit Spaceweather.com for safe sunspot observing tips and up-to-date
photos of auroras.”

“I'll go see that someday...nice”

“Yup....

One of These Days! <grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr>”

“I suppose the view could be nice, but I wouldn't know -- it's being obstructed by a never-ending wave of thunderstorms...”

“Had I known, I would have looked north after dark, as I am now in the far northwoods of northern Wisconsin, far from light pollution. Maybe tonight?”

“prosecutor. - Your're an early riser today. Hope the fish are biting.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is a good one this morning. Scroll right on it. Left clicking will give you an enlargement.

A String Of Pearls

Have a great weekend, everyone.”

“Cool!!! Wish I lived a little closser to see it :)...last night I was so out of it even if it was in our area I would of misssed it.”

“I hope they're out tonight. The kids are having a big sleep over tonight. Four extra kids tonight! Kids ranging in ages from three years old to twelve years old. I'll have to pull out the video camera to catch their reactions.... now watch it rain. :o)”

“Hmmmm... Sight unseen I would have to guess Shoemaker-Levy 9.”

“Here's a tidbit from the trivia files about the largest piece....

Fragment G of Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993e) expended ≈500,000 times as much energy as the Tunguska event on impacting Jupiter (6 teratons of TNT).”

“Jupiter is rough enough to take it. HOwever, if that hit the earth______there goes the neighborhood.”

“I may be camping out tonight. Dang! Wish I would have known to check for Northern lights on, what was that, Wed?? I was in the state park close to here, doing a story and then trying to get some nice shots of mist rising off the river and lowlands. That day is like a bright, sunny steam sauna! Everyone at the county fair kept commenting on how Wed. was just awful!!! (so I wasn't the only one!)”

“Yeah.... those guys at Spaceweather.com usually send out the email reports after the CMEs leave the Sun and before they get here....”

“Tilt, thanks for the heads up. I went out last night aftermidnight for an hour, and watched the best display of northern lights I have seen in over 25 years. Lots of fast shimmering movement, and at times, it covered about one third of the sky.”

“Thats great. I haven't gotten another update, but the folks at Spaceweather.com said that there were more large sunspots rotating our way a couple of days ago.”