Intense Auroral Activity Sat Night.

[bvar22]

Of course, Minnesota had 100% Cloud Cover, so no sitings were reported from Minnesota. Our forecast calls for clearing tonight, so it might be a good idea to "LOOK UP" from time to time, but no guarantees. The PEAK activity was for Fri and Sat night. Intense displays were observed all over Illinois, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Michigan and as far south as Missouri and Tennessee. Even some reports from Texas and New Mexico.

Here are some of the reports:

2005-05-15 15:23:00 UTC: N44.25 W92.25 - Evanston, IL
Amazing-I never knew it was possible for me to see this occurrence here next to the big, glowing city until last night! It ended around 3:45 ish but I still caught a good hour! I am incredibly impressed and excited to have seen it!

2005-05-15 09:36:00 UTC: N45.75 W95.25 - Milwaukee, WI
I have waited my whole life to see this. It was incredible. The sky was dancing. It was as spectacular as I had imagined and hoped it would be!!

2005-05-15 08:52:00 UTC: N43.5 W89.25 - Watertown, WI
Beautiful display! Saw white, green, and purple curtains. Been watching for this s
ince November! Totally worth the wait!

2005-05-15 02:46:00 UTC: N42 W94.5 - Montezuma Iowa
Wow. what a show lasted bout 3 hrs. Lots of green. Curtains with purple on the edge. took up 75% of the sky

If you would like to read more, you can find the reports here:
http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.php




This is the Statistical Auroral Conditions Map from last night at 2:AM local time during eyewitness reports of peak activity. You can see that the bright orange to red covers most of Minnesota.





Below is the same map RIGHT NOW (hot link). If the map below looks like the map above, LOOK UP. Its not 100%, but is as good an indicator as science now has. The RED ARROW points to the current position of the SUN in relation to Planet Earth.




I'm not real optimistic, but I will keep watch. The BEST time to observe is around midnight (+or- 2hrs) because the solar wind is blowing from the opposite side of the globe. If I see anything, I will post it under a new thread.

[tridim]

1. It seems like the earth's magnetic field is getting wobbly

and might be about to shift.. It's not a matter of "if", but "when". It's happened before.

Then again, it could just be a fluke. I wish I was more north so I could view the aurora.

[bvar22]

2. Update:

The skies over St. Paul cleared last night. I was able to observe the sky periodically between 11PM and 2AM. I did not observe any Auroral activity. There was no activity reported in the Northern Hemisphere on the observers network.

Below are some photos from the Sat. night (May 15) display:


The above was in the Southern Hemisphere.


Ohio




New images are still being posted. Aurora photography requires long exposures (30 sec-5mins) and other special film techniques that aren't available on most digital cameras. If pictures from areas close to St Paul are posted, I will update this post.

[bvar22]

3. More photos from May 15th

Lyndon Anderson,
Bismarck, North Dakota, USA
May. 15




The reds actually painted the foreground of the pic w/o enhancement.
Rob Brumm,
Marinette, WI USA
May. 15





Jesús Ojeda,
Saint Francis, Wisconsin, USA
May. 15




Mike Hollingshead,
Blair, Nebraska, USA
May. 15






Michael Howlett,
Kimberly, WI, USA
May. 15


Too bad Minnesota was overcast. We really missed a show.
Lots More Here:
http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01may05_page4.htm