Auroræ

[Té Rowan]

Saw some of the brightest — if not the brightest — northern lights I have ever seen last night. It was easily what we call ‘wayfinding light’ outside: Enough light to find one’s way without much trouble.

[Neko-]

Never seen those live, other than on TV. Been to Iceland last December in hopes of seeing those, but was thwarted by cloudcover. Still on the bucketlist somewhere.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Makes me wonder about light pollution. Back in the sixties, I saw Northern Lights in both Boston and Minneapolis - well-lighted areas. But then, that was late night in January, and I don't go outdoors on late nights in January these days. Cannot really make a fair comparison. Northern Minnesota? Yah, sure, we got 'em even today.

[AxelTheBunny]

I personally have never lived that far north so...grew up mostly in the pacific regions so... I suppose i did live in Germany for a bit, but was too young to remember seeing any.
Sounds interesting though. I do kinda get the light pollution thing though, as I did used to like stargazing and the like and now, especially living in the city i rarely can do so.

[Neko-]

Germany is far enough south that you'll only see the aurora if it's REALLY active. And even then only in the utmost north of the country.

[AxelTheBunny]

Ah, as I said I was too young to remember so...xP

I grew up mostly in Hawaii so...

[Neko-]

Over here (Netherlands) the utmost northern provinces very rarely see some shimmering in the distance out to sea, if the Borealis is really active, and the sky is really clear.

If you then consider that the Netherlands is located on the globe to be just north of the border between the US and Canada... So our sights are pretty consistent with how the south-part of Canada would see the Borealis.

Like I said, went to Iceland mid December to see something different, and planned to see the Borealis then too. That failed with cloudcover. And while I've been to Norway/Sweden/Finland (and even the Northcape), I've only been there during summer. With midsummernight that kind of makes it hard/impossible to see the Borealis spectacle. So it remains on the bucketlist.

[Spica75]

Like I said, went to Iceland mid December to see something different, and planned to see the Borealis then too. That failed with cloudcover. And while I've been to Norway/Sweden/Finland (and even the Northcape), I've only been there during summer. With midsummernight that kind of makes it hard/impossible to see the Borealis spectacle. So it remains on the bucketlist.

There was an awesome aurora once in Stockholm when i lived there in the late 80s, looked totally like a UFO, circular setup of white, green and red distinctly looking lights. Apparently it was the most "something something" aurora for 2 centuries ( not curtains or sheets of light but very individually clear lights instead ), and it happened perfectly while me and a friend was out walking. Really cool, never seen anything remotely like it before or since.

Saw some of the brightest — if not the brightest — northern lights I have ever seen last night. It was easily what we call ‘wayfinding light’ outside: Enough light to find one’s way without much trouble.

That´s cool when you get that good aurora. It´s rare here, but it does happen occasionally. Currently i´m a bit south compared to southernmost Iceland.

[Neko-]

We went out on December 10th, and had overcast skies.

Meanwhile in Finland this showed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfutjfUZARg

[Spica75]

Pretty.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Minnesota gets aurorae, but nothing that good. For that, you have to be closer to magnetic north.

[J. St.C. Patrick]

There have been occasions in the past few years when we were supposed to be able to see the aurorae from Vancouver. But on those occasions it was cloudy. The same thing seems to happen with the Perseid meteor showers in August

[Té Rowan]

Incidentally, there are several websites that offer aurora predictions and ‘live’ aurora maps. Some are ham (radio amateur) sites where one can also find propagation predictions. Strong Es (sporadic E-layer clouds) occurrences can bounce TV and FM broadcasts long distances. There are many Youtube video clips of long-distance TV – usually channels 2–4 – and FM reception. Might be some of auroral HF reception, too, all the RRRRRRRUMBLE! I don’t really miss.