Northern Lights

The Sandbox General
22

My kid sent some cool photos. Was an hour north of fargo

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I’m from Utica and I’ve never heard the term

24

They were visible as far south as Georgia. However, I was in a spot with a lot of light pollution so I couldn’t see them.

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These were taken from Kansas! @Mathman did you see them? Cameras picked up way more than the naked eye. My friend had a better camera than me. Mine (the third pic) is much closer to what we could actually see.

VERY cool to see this far south though!

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I didn’t stay up late and couldn’t see anything, though I’ve seen pics from others in Lawrence. Many of who also said the pics looked more dramatic than how they appeared to the naked eye.

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I think this is pretty much always true.

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This pic was taken in north metro Atlanta. Not my picture, saw it here:

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Overcast here, and it seems that NoCal was a better spot in this state to view. Need a lot less light pollution for this.

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:cloud_with_rain: :unamused:

31

Yep. We went to the deep countryside in Finland and it made such a difference. It also looks like Max solar activity cycle is happening over the next 6-9 months so should be a good time for a NL trip this winter as well.

We got good shots from January 2024.

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This is from North-Central Germany. Friends with better cameras for more dramatic shots, but it wasn’t as good as yesterday.

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33

Are these typically the strongest just after dark? I think it would make sense given it’s energy coming from the sun. It seemed the strongest here within an hour of sunset then faded out over the next hour. This is consistent with what was posted to FB, but also, more people are up at 10pm than 2am.

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Decided to try and see if we could catch a glimpse, so went north of the “big city” about 30 miles to get out of the city lights and try and find them. We were about to give up and turn around, but then noticed a thin strip of what looked like a cloud, and… hey, wait a minute! Pulled off the highway on a side road and backed into a ‘driveway’ to a field, and yep, there it was! We took a pictures to see how they’d look (thanks to y’all for mentioning that! :+1: ), and suddenly that ‘white’ cloud had a lot more color to it! We then started seeing some of the “flares”, which was cool, along with a couple of shooting stars to boot - quite a nice bonus!

But the most amusing part of it all was after we’d backed into the driveway (so we’d be facing north). We were staring up for about a minute, when all of a sudden behind us we heard a very loud “MOOOOO!!” Apparently when the farmer pulls into that driveway someone was supposed to get fed, and she wasn’t too happy about being ignored!! :cow: She kept going on for quite a while, getting more and more insistent/agitated with each “MOOOO!”. Fortunately the actual farmhouse must’ve been a ways away, so no annoyed farmer came to yell at us. :phew:

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This disturbance ends after tonight. It’s not forecast to be as intense tonight, but you might have one last chance

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index

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It’s a clickbait headline, but…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/us/solar-storm-tractor-break-nebraska.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rk0.XW7F.quFomlLIhmL-&smid=url-share

…modern commercial farming uses high-resolution GPS guidance to help automate certain tasks.

With GPS performance degraded over the weekend, planting was delayed.

(There was no widespread “frying” of circuits, however.)

37

The solar storm has been so strong these last few days.

Even in the South of the UK I have seen friends post NL pictures (Hampshire & Surrey).

That is unheard of for May.

38

The eclipse is a notable exception to this. Haven’t seen any photo that compares to the in person experience.

Could not see the Northern Lights from my front yard, even with a camera in night mode. Maybe too much light pollution, maybe because the horizon was blocked.

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Yes, my comment about the pictures being more brilliant than the naked eye was specifically about the northern lights.

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Can someone explain why a camera is picking up images that the naked eye cannot? I mean, I agree that is what’s happening, but what is going on? Filtering? Polarizing? Like an X-ray or the Hubble?

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Phone sensors are more sensitive than your eyes. Some newer phones with “night vision” type modes are very sensitive to any background light.

To See The Northern Lights Aurora This Weekend, Use Your Phone Camera?