Live data from Hacker News

Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

foto-webcam.eu

231–240 of 406 posts

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has never seem them, what I wish most people would do is attempt to edit said photos to 'about what it looked like to my eyes.' You can find some online, but they range from 'just like the picture' to 'random fog', so one is left not knowing what to believe.

It varries significantly depending where you are. Both could be true for different people viewing them from different places.

These would be interesting data points based on season, location, and weather conditions nonetheless.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That had aurora visible in Florida and Hawaii. It's going to take a little more effort from the Sun to match that.

Not for long. The earth's magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate as the poles shift. I believe we've spent far too much time worrying about CO2 and not nearly enough worrying about the dangers from our sun.

> The earth's magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate as the poles shift.

Got any scientific sources for that claim?

> I believe we've spent far too much time worrying about CO2 and not nearly enough worrying about the dangers from our sun.

Other than hardening our power grid to the effects of solar storms, what exactly could we do WRT the sun and the magnetic field?

Also, given our serious lack of progress on climate change targets and the glacial pace (pun intended) at which it has been accepted as 1) real and 2) anthropogenic, I think saying 'too much time' is inaccurate.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#235
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share a photo?

Currently pretty good at the South Pole. The pink skies are wild. Green auroras are fairlty common over the winter, but it's unusual for it to be this red. If you're interested in a real time video, here's one I captured a few weeks ago from our "back yard" (excuse the Instagram link) https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6T27pEO7dQ/?igsh=eXJyOGtuY2l...

Here are some additional photos from the current storm - https://www.instagram.com/p/C60Y-gIu4Ob/?igsh=N3AwaGZzODN3eD...

Sadly we have pretty high winds at the moment and visibility is poor due to all the blowing snow, but if you're high up (eg an observation deck), it's a bit clearer.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#236

Here are some phone pics from my home village in Germany: https://www.nowhereinparticular.xyz/polarlichter.html This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My brother, who is a hobby astronomer, called me and sent me outside. Initially, I saw only a faint red glow in the northeast of the sky, but after a few minutes, my eyes adapted and I could see how it slowly moved and changed its form over time. I stayed outside fo…

Is your village north, middle or south Germany. Just curious how much I missed:-/

Mid-west, in an area called Hunsrück.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#237

I live in rural very northern England. It’s incredible, clear with the naked eye. iPhone 14 camera with 3s exposure is out of this world (pun intended, but misleading)

Since we're all scientists here, I'll report a negative from central York. My wife and I stood up in the attic looking out of the Velux for 10 minutes. It was dark, clear and we were could see from NE-ish to SE-ish. We couldn't really call it. A very subtle effect on a 10s smartphone exposure, mayyybe? I will compare with tonight. We once rented a beautiful, slightly remote house on a beach outside Reykjavik and one…

Interesting, maybe it depends on when you were looking? Also central York and we popped outside just after half eleven and the aurora was very visible to the naked eye, not in full multicolour but very clearly not a cloud, quite thick and radiating out from a centre in the sky almost all the way down to the horizon. We have a reasonably dark place we can look from near us (and where we got some photos on a smartphone camera that show a sky full of vivid purples and greens) but I could see it clearly enough from right outside our house even with the bright led streetlights all around.

After 20 minutes it faded from view almost entirely and we went inside. I have no idea if it came back or what it was like beforehand, maybe we got very lucky or maybe it came and went through the night?

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#238

I am sad that I missed it. I there some sort of forecast service that tells when there is a good chance to see an aurora in a particular place?

If you go to https://spaceweather.com they have a link for text alerts when these things are about to happen.

That is one way.

I visit that site and a similar site for CME and space weather information: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com

There is a lot to see and to follow. I just came back inside after snapping pics since just after dark here in N Texas. We had a good show that started off behind the clouds but it was bright enough to shine through the clouds. Then a few hours later after the clouds cleared it was great. My camera battery quit on me. I used three cameras tonight and only really got usable photos from my iphone, whose camera I normally hate because it always seems to process images after I take them. Part of it is probably on me since I haven't taken the time to study how to optimize settings.

Anyway. Tomorrow should be another good day for this. Keep your eyes on the sky!

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#239

I am sad that I missed it. I there some sort of forecast service that tells when there is a good chance to see an aurora in a particular place?

Yes, you can use the NOAA forecast site which will show the "oval" and has 24 hour/30min predictions. Or Space Weather Live has some location forecasts. Generally if you don't live at a high latitude you need a very strong display to see anything. There's usually a bit of warning for storms like this, as various solar observation satellites can beam back images of the CME faster than the solar wind takes to get here.

The keywords to use are “space weather forecast ”

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#240
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SW USA

It really depends how far south you are and how strong the solar storm will get. You should look for some dark place close up. But it might be, that it is only visible on the northern parts of the US. Even seeing it there is quite uncommon.

This one was visible all the way to at lest San Antonio, Texas and the Florida Keys. I won't be surprised to see photos from Mexico. Nice show.
Post reply on HN