Apparently those of us in the north of the UK have a chance of seeing the Northern Lights tonight and tomorrow night... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16681732
It'll probably be cloudy though!!
Jen
I was just about to post those, I'm in Manchester and it was cloudy last night so no chance of seeing them. If you are on twitter follow #Aurora topic on twitter, people are constantly posting likelihood, where when etc, I follow https://twitter.com/#!/VirtualAstro who is a wealth of info! And retweets all the pictures he gets sent, it was so exciting last night and I didn't even get to see them first hand, LOL!
Thanks for the info on how to take a shot @cavemonster Lets see if we can manage to get enough Northern Lights photo's for a thread by the end of the week!!!
@wormentude Anywhere where you can see the northern horizon clearly would be good. Word is tonight might not be as spectacular as last night and there is a better chance tomorrow, but things can change quickly.
@charli321 Awesome - I'll start following them :) @wormentude yeah - that's got to be our best bet :) I'll be there tonight and perhaps tomorrow, but not til after 10.20 I shouldn't think - might see you there?
Whoo hoooo I am as far East as you can be in Scotland, so I will keep an eye out for them :) Plus I am really high and in the remote countryside, which means if its out there and there islittle cloud I stand a chance.. As olong as I get the camera settings right that is :o)
@cavemonster I am so excited and can't believe I missed the spectacle last night!! There are photos from St.Mary's lighthouse on the BBC page - that's just 20 minutes from where I live :-/
Will try it later too! Good luck for cloudless skies in Sheffield!
I hope you have clear skies and a chance to see this wonderful phenomenon - something I'd love to witness first hand but won't get the chance. It would be lovely to think that the you'll be able to view it, even if I can't. Good luck! :-)
Sun erupts with biggest radiation storm in seven years
Wave of charged particles expected to force rerouting of polar airplane flights
"A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles past Earth on Tuesday, as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun overnight (10:59 p.m. ET Sunday, or 0359 GMT Monday), according to SpaceWeather.com.
The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory and the STEREO spacecraft, observed the massive sun storm.
A barrage of charged particles triggered by the outburst is expected to hit Earth at around 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to experts at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [Video and photos of the solar flare]
NOAA's forecasters say this is the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005. As a precaution, polar flights on Earth are expected to be rerouted, the agency's deputy administrator, Kathy Sullivan, said Monday at the 92nd annual American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans.
Scientists call these electromagnetic bursts "coronal mass ejections," and they are closely studied because they can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's magnetic field.
In addition to generating stronger than normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), geomagnetic storms aimed directly at our planet can also disrupt satellites in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage other electronic infrastructures." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46102926/ns/technology_and_science-space/
"RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The "snow" in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory's onboard camera.
ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash: ..." http://www.spaceweather.com/
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Forgive a stupid question but is there a 'window' of opportunity or will any time after sunset be good?
I'm probably too far south though :(
1. Take a sturdy tripod. And make sure it is tall, as you'll spend a lot of time looking upwards.
2. Use a wide-angle lens, capable of letting in lots of light, minimum aperture, F/2.8.
3. If lens is F/2.8, set camera at ISO 800 and set shutter speed to between 8 and 15 seconds.
4. Use a remote switch. Not touching the camera means less chance of vibration.
5. Keep your batteries close to your skin, to keep them warm.
Thanks for the info on how to take a shot @cavemonster Lets see if we can manage to get enough Northern Lights photo's for a thread by the end of the week!!!
Some useful links though: http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ http://www.solarham.com/ http://spaceweather.com/
@wormentude yeah - that's got to be our best bet :) I'll be there tonight and perhaps tomorrow, but not til after 10.20 I shouldn't think - might see you there?
Thanks for the tip off
@bmnorthernlight @michelleyoung @wormentude @charli321
Will try it later too! Good luck for cloudless skies in Sheffield!
Wave of charged particles expected to force rerouting of polar airplane flights
"A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles past Earth on Tuesday, as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun overnight (10:59 p.m. ET Sunday, or 0359 GMT Monday), according to SpaceWeather.com.
The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory and the STEREO spacecraft, observed the massive sun storm.
A barrage of charged particles triggered by the outburst is expected to hit Earth at around 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to experts at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [Video and photos of the solar flare]
NOAA's forecasters say this is the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005. As a precaution, polar flights on Earth are expected to be rerouted, the agency's deputy administrator, Kathy Sullivan, said Monday at the 92nd annual American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans.
Scientists call these electromagnetic bursts "coronal mass ejections," and they are closely studied because they can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's magnetic field.
In addition to generating stronger than normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), geomagnetic storms aimed directly at our planet can also disrupt satellites in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage other electronic infrastructures."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46102926/ns/technology_and_science-space/
NOAA / Space Weather Prediction Center
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html
"RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The "snow" in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory's onboard camera.
ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash: ..."
http://www.spaceweather.com/