Atlantic Last Night
 

Hi Guys,

Quite a show last night with great aurora and meteor showers.

The duration of the northern Delta Aquarid meteor shower covers the period of July 16 to September 10. Maximum currently occurs on August 13/14 (solar longitude=139 deg), from an average radiant of RA=340°, DEC=-2°. The maximum hourly rate typically reaches 10.

That explains the meteors.

AURORA WATCH: A high-speed solar wind stream hit Earth last night, sparking auroras over parts of Canada and some northern US states. The storm has subsided, but the solar wind is still blowing, raising the possibility of another storm tonight. Sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

That explains the Aurora.

The bright star to the east before dawn was Venus, not as some american commentators quipped, Uranus !


Enjoy the night sky

I'm jealous. Probably won't see much from Manchester UK!

Lots of high energy particles at higher latitudes, more expected on 31 July
This from NOAA. .
Geophysical Activity Summary 27/2100Z to 28/2100Z:
The geomagnetic field was at unsettled to major storm conditions.
Major storm periods were observed between 28/0000 to 0300 UTC and 28/0300 to 0600 UTC. Heightened activity was due to the onset of a coronal hole high speed stream. Solar wind speed at ACE increased early in the period from approximately 470 km/s to a maximum of 710 km/s around 28/0400 UTC. Wind speed has been slowly declining and ended the summary period at approximately 570 km/s.
IIB. Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled with isolated active periods possible on 29 July. On 30 July, quiet to unsettled conditions are expected. On 31 July, a coronal hole high speed stream is expected to move into geoeffective position causing unsettled to active conditions with minor storm periods possible.

I flew westbound over the Atlantic on early thursdaymorning but didn´t see much though. Too bad I missed it, would have loved to see it! Maybe I was too sleepy already at that time of night...........:zzz:

Just came back in this morning. Sadly not much seen either despite a relatively northern track. Thanks for the heads up, will carry on looking....

LOL!

I am sure the "american commentators" know what Uranus looks like. ;)

Good Lord - serious replies, I am impressed.

I am kind of interested in the above bits but try and keep it low key.

We are fortunate to witness some of the sights we see, hopefully, our fellows agree.

Mike

C'mon JAV, you really do need to start taking some pics of these things. Us mere earthbound homo sapiens rarely, if ever, get to see Mother Nature at work like this. ;)

Big Tudor - just for you here's one I did earlier....

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ess/aurora.png

Taken with a Fuji. I set the ASA to 800 and let it autoexpose, resting the camera on the coaming. There is some camera shake as you can see from the blurring of Venus, but the aurora itself has come out quite well.

This was at 0720Z over Hudson Bay back in May.

These were the flt conditions:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...stress/pfd.png

To avoid jokes about the planet Uranus it is proposed that the planet Uranus has its name changed to URECTUM.

:ouch: