***HEADS UP TONIGHT! Visible Aurora forecast for Mid-Latitudes!****

[bvar22]

ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR OR AFTER LOCAL MIDNIGHT

EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: LOW TO MODERATE

OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO GOOD

AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM...
(THIS LINE IS VALID *ONLY* IF FAVORABLE STORM CONDITIONS OCCUR)

OREGON TO SOUTHERN IDAHO AND NORTHERN UTAH TO WYOMING TO NEBRASKA TO NORTHERN MISSOURI TO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS TO KENTUCKY TO VIRGINIA.

Solar activity is very high.
Earth-orbiting satellites have detected seven X-class solar flares since Sept. 7th, including one X17-class monster-flare. NOAA forecasters say there's a 75% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours, possibly causing radio blackouts and radiation storms.

The source of all this activity is giant sunspot 798, shown above flaring brightly on Sept. 9th
(photo credit: Birgit Kremer of Marbella, Spain).

SunSpot 798 will be rotation toward the Earth over the next few days, and the solar wind should intensify.



The above pic auto-updates. The red arrow points toward the sun.
When your location is in the ORANGE to RED area, conditions are GOOD for a visible Aurora display.

Mild Auroral displays were observed Sat Night, mostly in the NorthEast. Tonight's (and the next few nights) indicators are MUCH stronger.


HEADS UP!!!

[beam me up scottie]

1. Sigh...

I miss northern lights.
Nobody down here has ever seen them.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. cool. Wish I could see it from NYC.

[sabbat hunter]

3. dark area

if we are in a dark area away from the city lights, like out on long island, will we be able to see the northern lights?

i saw them once years ago when i was in college at oneonta state. they were magnificent.


peace
david

[Mr_Spock]

4. Cool - I wonder if I could see this in NH

Never seen this before...

[beam me up scottie]

5. I'm originally from northern Vermont.

We used to see them all the time.
You shouldn't miss the opportunity.

[Redstone]

8. Can I ask where in northern Vermont?

I grew up there too.

(If, of course, I didn't already ask you this. I do tend to forget.)

Redstone

[beam me up scottie]

12. Lake Champlain region.

On North Hero at first, then later in Highgate.

How about you?

[Redstone]

16. Straight across the state on US 2 from your area;

last town before crossing the river into New Hampshire: Lunenburg. Ever been through there?

Have only been through North Hero once, but found it to be a truly delightful little town. Wouldn't mind living there at all.

Funny thing is, if you jumped into the Connecticut River in Lunenburg and floated down to its end, you'd be a third of a mile from where I live now. Can't stay away from that river, I guess.

Redstone

[beam me up scottie]

17. No, I haven't.

I've been all over the Northeast Kingdom, though, my favorite part of Vermont after the islands.

I went to a three room school house on North Hero Island, grades 1-8.

I miss it terribly and hope to move back this year.

[Redstone]

18. You beat me by one room! I went to a FOUR-room school

with grades 1 through 8.

Made it easy for me to take two grades at the same time, and end up graduating from high school at 16.

Redstone

[beam me up scottie]

20. I am so glad that Vermont

passed Act 250 after seeing what Kentucky is doing to their
once-beautiful countryside.

It would kill me to go back there and see miles of billboards, strip malls, industrial complexes, condos and gated communities where there used to be forests and pastures and farmland.

They just bulldozed a beautiful pond across the road from me.
Killed all of the fish, turtles, frogs and other aquatic life, not to mention how much it will affect the wildlife that used it as a source for water.

[Redstone]

22. A lot of people in Vermont bitch about 250, but if you

press them, they'll admit that it's important.

Vermont has always gone very much its own way. Maybe that's part of why people like you and me still consider it to be home, even if we haven't lived there for a long time.

I'ts been 40 years for me, and I still get VERY homesick when we go there.

Someday soon, I'll go home...

And I hope you find your way home as well.

Redstone

[beam me up scottie]

24. Thanks, you too.

Howard Dean, Patrick Leahy, Jim Jeffords and Bernie Sanders never would have stood a chance of being elected in other states.

To us, they're just typical Vermonters.

[Mr_Spock]

6. I just glanced to the North while outside - saw a small meteorite burn-out

That was kinda spooky actually - directly where I looked the meteorite burned up in a streak heading due North. Fascinating :D

[Canuckistanian]

7. I don't see why not

I've seen aurorae as far south as Toronto and that's about the latitude of NH.
Are you in the north of NH? If so, you're pretty close to me and I plan on looking for it tonight.

[Mr_Spock]

10. Well, in So. NH - 42.880 latitude

it's nice and dark here though :D

[Canuckistanian]

9. I just realized something...

On my screen I see Mr_Spock and beam me up scottie discussing events happening in space.

I guess it was inevitable that you two met.

[Mr_Spock]

13. LOL - there are a few Trekkie's here - I didn't even notice this time though

Star Trek is a show that defines the adventurous spirit for many liberals :D

[beam me up scottie]

14. Trekkies unite!

Hat's off to Gene Roddenberry, a man ahead of his time.

"I was pleased that in those days when you couldn't even get blacks on television, that I not only had a black, but a black woman, and a black officer ."

"If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear."

[kestrel91316]

11. Not here in Lost Angeles??

So sad...........I think I remember seeing the Northern Lights many years ago in NE Oregon (either that, or a vivid dream of seeing them).It was beautiful reddish to whitish rippling light that flashed and disappeared.

[rabbit2484]

15. I saw an excellent display last night in N. WI

Not many colors, but unbelievable pulses.

It's so nice to get out of the city for a weekend a go where there is no cities and lights for miles and miles.

[The Kicker]

25. I'm in Northern Michigan

I saw the same.No colors,or occasional faint pinks and greens, but the pulsing,spires and swerls were pretty cool. Maybe we'll get colors tonight.

[sakabatou]

19. Crap... I only saw one once, over greenland

[LynneSin]

21. I'm so glad that at least once in my life I've seen the Aurora

BTW, it's amazingly beautiful. I was driving across Pennyslvania Rt80 heading to Cleveland with my then boyfriend so we could visit my family and see Eagles play out in Cleveland. We left after work on Friday so it was a latenight drive plus snow was forcasted so we hit some nasty weather.

It took us a bit to figure out what we were seeing in the sky but listening to a local radio station they mentioned it was the Northern Lights. We pulled off an exit and got a great viewing spot to check out the lights. An amazingly romantic night!

[FlaGranny]

23. I've seen it twice.

Once in the late 1950s in New Jersey and again in 1994 in Montana. In NJ it was faint, but visible. In Montana it lit up the sky to the north of where we were.

[bvar22]

26. Sat night's Aurora***pics***

Brian Jolley,
Park City, Utah



Karl Kuehn,
Greene, NY



Lyndon Anderson,
15 miles north of Bismarck, North Dakota.



Ryan Finkbiner,
Minot, North Dakota




Paul L Meisel,
Ward County, North Dakota


Tonight's show may be a fizzle. Not much happening on the Aurora Observation Network website.
http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.php

Don't fret.
The forecast conditions are OPTIMUM for the next 4 nights.

[beam me up scottie]

27. Beautiful.

Absolutely breathtaking.