We are heading into a solar maximum and with that come the “Northern Lights” as most people know them. Ill update this post when a CME of importance is inbound.
Tonight we are seeing a bit of a show up where i am, Chassell, MI. We just went from a KP5 G1 to a KP6 G2 event so if you are up in the higher northern latitudes poke yer head out but remember to do so for awhile to let your eyes adjust or you wont see much. It might be possible to see them from a city if you are farther north than i am.
I just came in from observing but i wasnt alone out there, i brought a red light flashlight and saw two pair of eyes from the two deer that sleep in the yard.
It has settled a bit but looks like it will be increasing again shortly. It was pretty wild for about an hour and a half, the entire sky was filled with ribbons of green light. Just incredible.
Now i just need to figure out how to take pictures of the night sky with my camera phone…
Awesome, I saw that yesterday. I’m in Massachusetts and if it’s a kp6 we can sometimes see a glow if it’s very clear, no clouds and go into the forest where there are no lights. Last spring even Ct saw beautiful colors. It was stormy here last night.
It was quite beautiful. I ended up taking a blanket out and laid in my hammock to watch for another hour and a half. We hit KP7 G3 but the magnetic field moved slightly north so it wasnt as intense but it was still lovely. There is a possibility of another event tonight.
@SessionDrummer I know right? So much nerd stuff on that site. I use a couple others too but none are to detailed.
Keep your eyes pointed toward the heavens fellow sky watchers:
GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G3): Three and perhaps four CMEs are heading for Earth following a seriesofexplosions on the sun this week. Estimated time of arrival: Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st. The biggest of the CMEs, launched on Nov. 28th, could sweep up some of the earlier, lesser ones, forming a Cannibal CME capable of sparking strong G3-class geomagnetic storms with mid-latitude auroras.
I got me a new phone app to see if it helps with night photos, reckon ill know soon enough.
This is going to be an awesome winter for sky shows.
That article says that a KP lvl of 7 means they could be seen down in Ohio and Indiana but KP lvl isnt the only factor. Generally with a KP of 6 and a South Bz will oft make the skies light up all over the Northern Hemisphere.
About half way down the page, “Interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere”, can explain it better than me and it has a image to help out.
I’m going go try go get into the forest here in Ma and use a camera. In the spring people in Connecticut got photos with cameras that they really couldn’t see with their eyes. It’s something I’ve always wanted to witness. I’ve been keeping an eye on the charts…it did dip down into Ma yesterday, but knowing it can change… fingers crossed bc getting to see them would make 2023 a great year!
I grew up one suburb from the Chicago border. A mere 8 blocks. Never saw the stars because of light pollution. Moved into my house about 49 years ago and it was nothing but stars in the sky. Today those stars are gone again with delevement. Hopefully I will see this.
Light pollution sucks and its gonna get worse with how cheap LEDs are to run. For me there is no light pollution other than what we create. The dern electricians wired it up with no switches so i cant turn them off till they come back and finish. They did so for the inspection.
Here we go folks, hit KP4 with a moderately strong south Bz. The Prediction seems on track for what they thought would happen, so far things look good!
Now that the clouds have cleared up here the moon is out and very bright, we hardly ever see the moon so it figures she’d show up tonight.
CME Impact: Magnetometers around the world detected a geomagnetic sudden impulse at 00:21 UTC (Dec 1). This marks the exact moment a incoming CME shock passed our planet. The Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field is currently pointing south and the solar wind speed is elevated around 450 km/s. Based on the higher plasma density, I would assume this is related to the M9.8 flare/CME event. It is very early and fluctuations over the next several hours will take place. A geomagnetic storm warning is now in effect.
Do you know the mall on I94 and state line in Kenosha? Before that was there my house was. You could see the Milky Way back then. Before i moved here i lived in Trevor, you probably remember, and it was crazy how little i could see compared to back in the day. Maybe it was old eyes but every direction had light pollution. So sad. Here we get a little from Houghton but not enough to hinder viewing.
Looks like things are running a couple hours behind but we just hit KP 4.5 with a slightly south Bz. Looking at my cams its still cloudy for me to the north but looks like its clearing up, fingers crossed.
