Northern lights?

by Liza on Dec. 12th, 2006

Aurora borealis: (Photo courtesy Sami Koykka)

A friend passed along an E-mail from Parke W. Kunkle, President of the Minnesota Planetarium Society:

"Hi, all.
This email contains information about potential aurora for the next few days....

There's a big active region now on sun. Watch its progress.

Normally I'd watch it on [the NASA site], but that instrument is down for routine maintenance until Tuesday.

I think there is a good chance for northern lights the next couple of nights. Just go outside and look north.
If you are being a winter weenie and don't want to go out, check the auroral map.

To learn about space weather, try the Exploratorium site.

Or see ongoing information."

Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas

ARTiFactor says:

If you are out Wed night you should also look for meteors. Here are the top 10 tips for viewing the 2006 Geminid meteor shower.

posted on Wed, 12/13/2006 - 10:41am

Gene says:

I got an e-mail, too, from The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks:

The solar active region that came around the limb last week is now facing Earth. There was a large solar flare.... [which]
should reach the Earth on the morning of the 14th GMT.... The conclusion is watch the sky tonight [Wednesday, 12/13] and tomorrow night [Thursday, 12/14] in North America perhaps as far
south as the middle US and tomorrow night in Europe as far south as northern Europe. The aurora should be visible also from Tasmania and South New Zealand.

I understood the Geminid meteor shower was going to peak on Thursay night, but there should be some meteors Wendesday as well.

posted on Wed, 12/13/2006 - 3:26pm