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    • axblount · 2 years ago

      Is this related to the solar storm? Why is it pink?

    • moralestapia · 2 years ago

      Oh, boy. So beautiful! It's probably visible where I am as well but there's still some sunlight so gg. Hope it lasts for a while!

        • NegativeLatency · 2 years ago

          This is a very cool visulization

          • isatty · 2 years ago

            That's a really cool website. Very responsive too.

            • sc__ · 2 years ago

              I live in a northern Atlantic country and use it to learn about upcoming storms during storm season, days in advance of my national weather service.

            • zeteo · 2 years ago

              Is it visible from Australia as well?

                • idlewords · 2 years ago

                  The auroral oval stays roughly the same but the Earth rotates under it.

                  • davidw · 2 years ago

                    Cool! That means if it stays stable, it's headed our way on a very clear evening here. Fingers crossed...

                • kzrdude · 2 years ago

                  It was seen in France and Switzerland today, even if they are not colored in on the map, so it could be seen outside the main areas.

                  Also - there is green over the equator - is that intentional?

                  • anileated · 2 years ago

                    There is a 50% probability of aurora borealis over the equator right now according to that website.

                  • bonzini · 2 years ago

                    Barely visible in Northern Italy—no pink worth calling home about—but the sky is sensibly lighter than it usually is.

                    • davidw · 2 years ago

                      The one pointed 'nordest' from Monte Grappa seems to show some pink:

                      https://www.meteograppa.it/lewebcam.php

                      Tried looking for some webcams in the Cortina area but they seem to have a lot of clouds. Some of which appear to have a pink hue.

                      • bonzini · 2 years ago

                        Light pollution does not help, probably.

                        • davidw · 2 years ago

                          Found one from the Stelvio pass that shows some colors, but nothing like some of the other links people are posting.

                      • davidw · 2 years ago

                        Nice way to celebrate the Giro d'Italia!

                          • chgs · 2 years ago

                            Doesn’t look like that in reality. If I take a photo on my phone here in the UK midlands I get pink and green in all directions with a 3 second exposure.

                            However with just the naked eye it’s like super high level clouds

                            • mrcus · 2 years ago

                              Yeah, none of these other stories and photos are from reality

                              • amatecha · 2 years ago

                                Yeah, camera sensors (depending on filtering) are far more sensitive to the dim light of the aurora than our eyes. Still means you can get utterly amazing photography there already! :)

                                • codetrotter · 2 years ago

                                  A couple of years ago in the middle of Norway (not south, not north, in-between) me and a friend saw in the news that there would be aurora borealis, which is not common in that part of Norway.

                                  We were outside at like 2AM in the night that day trying to spot it but could see any hint of it for the life of us.

                                  Finally we used his phone and long exposure to see what it would pick up and on the captured photo we saw shades of green like aurora borealis.

                                  Quite fascinating, it was.

                                  • Filligree · 2 years ago

                                    For what it's worth... growing up in Tromsø, we have auroras a few dozen times per winter usually.

                                    They were always strong enough to be easily seen, often quite dramatic. It really does look like that if you're far enough north.

                                    • codetrotter · 2 years ago

                                      For sure. As mentioned though we were in the middle of Norway, not north.

                                      Well, actually the proper term for where we were at is East Norway. And I guess by official standards the middle of Norway is further north than where I consider the middle of Norway to be.

                                      To be very specific, we were in Gjøvik.

                                    • dotancohen · 2 years ago

                                      I was lucky enough to be in Tromsø in February 2013 during the last solar cycle maximum. It was absolutely amazing, even a local who we happened upon near one of the fjords while he was cross country skiing - in the middle of the night - said that he had never seen such aurora. They were gold and purple along with the more common greens and reds that we had seen all week.

                                  • ShakataGaNai · 2 years ago

                                    I was in Northern MN a couple years back when there was some decent aurora https://imgur.com/a/nBjdhZ9

                                    What the camera caught was really impressive! Even with just a couple seconds exposure on a phone. But what the human eye saw was.... effectively a portion of the sky that was unusually bright and seemed to have some sort of movement. Like you stared at it and knew something was amiss, but nothing "impressive" to look at.

                                    • erikbye · 2 years ago

                                      Come to the arctic circle during polar night, then you will see impressive.

                                    • porphyra · 2 years ago

                                      Human eyes are basically black and white in low light since rod cells can't detect color.

                                    • deadbabe · 2 years ago

                                      Ok why is it that some people say northern lights look EXACTLY like these spectacular photos, and others say in real life they are actually barely visible and you need a camera and very dark skies?

                                      Is there some kind of running joke I’m missing? I saw some northern lights in Iceland but they were very dim and underwhelming, I didn’t even know what I was looking at until I photographed them and saw the vivid green streaks in the photo, which definitely weren’t super visible in real life. The tour guide even said they aren’t actually like the photos at all!

                                      Are northern lights bullshit or what? What is possible to see with just a bare naked eye?

                                      • nerdenough · 2 years ago

                                        They'll never look exactly like the long exposure, ultra vibrant photos. However, when they are really strong you can see both greens and purples very distinctly with the naked eye.

                                        One experience you can get in person when they're really strong is how fast they can dance around above you as well. I've found the dancing lights to the naked eye are much more astounding than in timelapses or videos, 1) because that's when they're most vibrant in person, and 2) because you can see just how fast and jittery and energetic they are, unlike in a video which is usually captured at much less than 30fps for low light and denoised and frames mashed together to create those soupy smooth videos and timelapses. Nice in their own way, but nowhere near the same experience.

                                        And when they're very low energy they will just look like green grey clouds to the naked eye.

                                        Source: live in the arctic

                                        • Geee · 2 years ago

                                          Yeah, typically northern lights look like faint white clouds with a little bit of green tint to naked eye. The photos are like those time-exposure photos of the milky way, which is not what the eye sees.

                                          • matsemann · 2 years ago

                                            While they "typically" look like that, because most often they're quite weak, I wouldn't compare it to milky way photos. If it's strong, especially if you're up north and somewhere with little light pollution, what you see is comparable to lots of pictures.

                                            • jnurmine · 2 years ago

                                              In addition to the intensity of the Solar activity, location matters, especially nowadays.

                                              The auroras won't be super vivid near larger cities in Central Europe, with a lot of light around you. It's just not north enough and not dark enough. Up north, rural Lapland or so, it can get very vivid during a winter.

                                              Cameras tend to add their extra though.

                                              A surprising thing to me was how the aurora can sometimes be still and sometimes move so fast. It is a strange experience. One would expect something that covers such a large part of the visible sky-dome to move slowly, but instead it can swipe around quite quickly ("like a fox's tail").

                                              • fch42 · 2 years ago

                                                If you ever have the chance to see the Milky way from Namibia, the Andes, the Western Australian desert, you may revise your view there. The dust clouds and star streams extend far out and make it appear like "standing on the bridge of as starship". It looks very 3D. Still not colorful, but immersive and so much detail.

                                                Alas, in the northern hemisphere, we've been pretty good eradicating nighttime darkness (and a lot else besides ...).

                                                • marssaxman · 2 years ago

                                                  In the northern hemisphere, you can enjoy that view - spectacularly - from Mauna Kea. I had never before realized that you could perceive depth in the sky.

                                                • swiftcoder · 2 years ago

                                                  You should try seeing the milky way from the middle of an ocean sometime - most folks have never been far enough from light pollution to really see it as it used to be.

                                                  It really does look like a river of starlight across the sky, once you are a few hundred miles away from shore.

                                                • flak48 · 2 years ago

                                                  I’ve seen both.

                                                  Last night from London the most I could see with my naked eye was diffuse patches of faint pink and green - sometimes highlighted by marginally brighter white-pink streaks that cut across the patches. The camera however picked them up as dramatic bright pink/green columns of light with rarely any trace of the blackness of the sky.

                                                  When I was in Iceland a few years ago though - I distinctly remember being easily able to make out super bright and well define dancing wavy bands of bright green, pink, purple and orange (with high contrast compared to the surrounding dark sky) with my naked eye. The camera again picked up the same thing but with the blackness of the sky covered by a green /pink coloured background - something definitely brighter but less well defined that what I could see with my naked eye (and the camera images were not necessarily superior than what I could see in this case).

                                                  TL:DR; I’ve seen both versions of what you describe with my naked eye and it’s definitely not bullshit! When people say they can’t see anything like the pictures - I would have to guess that they either have never been in an area with significant activity or maybe didn’t have dark enough skies without light pollution.

                                                  • majikandy · 2 years ago

                                                    In my back garden in london initially it felt like maybe I was just seeing remnants of having looked at a lightbulb and then looking at the sky. After a bit of eyes adjusting the pinks were very clear and the white streaks like rays of light you see in those kind of beams from heaven type pictures. The green was more on the horizon and initially needed the camera to show it at all, and then again after a while I could see feint green with the naked eye. Yes the camera showed it more, but the naked eye experience was also magical and I feel very lucky to have seen it on bbc news website by chance before going to bed. I watched it from 11:15pm to midnight when it seemed to vanish as if it was never there in the first place. I feel like I caught the ISS in a photo too but I can’t find definitive information it was overhead at 11:51pm uk time, so it probably wasn’t.

                                                  • dimask · 2 years ago

                                                    Imo if the northern lights are strong, the live experience is superior to photos because of how they move, while photos are still images. But many times they are not as strong and they do not look like much with naked eye, while long exposure will catch more of it.

                                                    • silisili · 2 years ago

                                                      As someone who has never seem them, what I wish most people would do is attempt to edit said photos to 'about what it looked like to my eyes.'

                                                      You can find some online, but they range from 'just like the picture' to 'random fog', so one is left not knowing what to believe.

                                                      • bawolff · 2 years ago

                                                        It varries significantly depending where you are. Both could be true for different people viewing them from different places.

                                                        • silisili · 2 years ago

                                                          These would be interesting data points based on season, location, and weather conditions nonetheless.

                                                          • bawolff · 2 years ago

                                                            That's a little like asking people to report how wet they got when it was raining, and not controlling for if they have an umbrella or were out after the storm passed.

                                                          • silisili · 2 years ago

                                                            Thanks! Certainly two entirely different visuals.

                                                            • Nition · 2 years ago

                                                              Yeah. Although I'm sure you can get closer to the phone photo in real life if you're somewhere very dark and near the poles.

                                                        • _ph_ · 2 years ago

                                                          I saw them yesterday mostly as light grey clouds. But at one moment, those clouds turned slightly red to me. I am at a very bright location and quite far to the south. So I only can assume, that their brightness was at the brink of color vision and that my eye wasn't perfectly adapted to the dark. In better circumstances and perhaps with a tiny bit more "signal", they should appear in colors.

                                                          • fch42 · 2 years ago

                                                            I've seen both impressive (colorful, bright, straight overhead and fast movement) as well as barely noticeable (colorless bands/sheets that "look like faint clouds but somehow odd". With the "odd" mostly meaning that they move different from clouds; not preferentially in wind (or any) direction, and often just around our eye's threshold. It also, sometimes, looks like a band of light pollution low along the northern horizon, when the green main aurora oval is "just" visible.

                                                            Few-seconds exposures on a digital camera bring the colors out that you may or may not see by eye if the aurora is weak.

                                                            Also, especially mid-latitudes, sometimes an Aurora display has moments of higher brightness with color, and then again "grey curtains".

                                                            The most impressive thing about stronger Aurora, to me, is the "fine structure", the fact you may have it well overhead (not just on the northern horizon) and the fast movements. It can look like "beads" running up and down the curtains, or "lances" being thrown from the sky, and line/streak structures are very sharply outlined, not like the soft blur in multi-second pictures. And the curtains can "wave" across the entire sky in a second then.

                                                            But I haven't seen enough Aurora to dare predict anything ... I cross my fingers.

                                                            • dahart · 2 years ago

                                                              Not bullshit. When you see a strong one, it looks like all the amazing photos, and better because it’s moving and spanning the sky. Photos never capture the scale.

                                                              I had a similar thought about the sun’s corona during a solar eclipse, for some reason I thought people were using special photo processes to extract something that was hard to see without equipment. Then caught an eclipse and the corona blooms like a huge flower in the sky and it’s better than almost all the photos. I’m guessing the dynamic range of the corona makes it very hard to photograph anywhere near as good as what it looks like when you’re there.

                                                              • Kon5ole · 2 years ago

                                                                One thing to consider is that when you run outside because you get a tip about northern lights, your eyes need about 20-30 minutes to fully adjust to darkness. If you do things like look at a phone display or camera display while waiting, that "timer" gets reset.

                                                                In my experience when the lights are strong (and your eyes have adjusted), they look a lot like the photos - not as saturated color-wise, but very bright.

                                                                • marssaxman · 2 years ago

                                                                  I wonder the same. My wife and I drove out to a park east of Seattle late last night to spend a couple hours watching the aurora, and it was... okay. I saw some faint grey wisps, like high-altitude clouds, which occasionally faded away and reappeared elsewhere. A mild novelty, but nothing I would bother to seek out again; I assumed we were too far south, or out of the path, and hadn't gotten to see it properly.

                                                                  This morning, though, my feeds are chock-a-block with dramatic, colorful, detailed photos, complete with rapturous commentary about the drama of the spectacle, posted by people in the same area who were apparently watching the same sky! Well... that's a different experience than I had. I'd been told that the colors showed up more clearly through a camera, but I hadn't realized there would be little to see without one.

                                                                  • PuffinBlue · 2 years ago

                                                                    There are many variables. Visual acuity, how well your eyes can adapt to low light, colour sensitivity, light pollution and cloud cover are just a few. Even standing next to each other two people can have different experiences thanks to those variables.

                                                                    I am very fortunate to have excellent visual acuity, low light sensitivity and am extremely sensitive to colour/different shades or tones. There are test you can do online for this if you have a well calibrated screen. I also used to be a photographer and worked for years in low light settings documenting events. So I have put that good fortune in the genetic lottery to good use!

                                                                    So for me, I absolutely saw the full colour display very strongly. I could see variations in colour throughout the height of the column and i could easily make out the striations between the different filaments. I could also easily see the curve of the bands across the northern sky. The colours to me were as obvious as the orange of light pollution you might see from a nearby town. I could see the low level patches of cloud silhouetted against the green and the huge bands of red/pinky red towering up into space.

                                                                    What I will say though is that even looking at my phone was enough to dull the experience. And minimally strong light in the eye instantly desaturated the colours of the aurora and took a minute or two to recover. So you really do need dark places, dark skies and to really let your eyes full adjust to their maximum possible sensitivity.

                                                                    • BenjiWiebe · 2 years ago

                                                                      So at 9:55PM in central Kansas, you could see definite pink/red in the north (vertical strips, reminiscent of sunset/sunrise through clouds) and a bright colorless/maybe greenish patch straight up. Also some faint pink to the west. The color was unmistakable in the north though and only required a minute or so of dark adaptation after coming out of the house. It's dark skies here but not extremely dark. Funny thing is the aurora itself made the sky very not-dark.

                                                                    • bitcurious · 2 years ago

                                                                      > Ok why is it that some people say northern lights look EXACTLY like these spectacular photos, and others say in real life they are actually barely visible and you need a camera and very dark skies?

                                                                      There is a lot of variability in people’s night vision. I viewed this past aurora with a friend, we went to a relatively dark sky location and let our eyes adjust for 30 minutes. In that setting, I could make out the green and red coloration while she mostly saw it as a while glow.

                                                                  • dylan604 · 2 years ago

                                                                    Any place with that much snow in mid-May is just make believe to me at this point in time.

                                                                    • hackernewds · 2 years ago

                                                                      what am I expecting to see?

                                                                    • consp · 2 years ago

                                                                      Most of Europe == Not covered by light polution. (and specific areas)

                                                                      (it's orange outside and it's sodium vapor related)

                                                                      edit: kind of whish I was at my parent's place. It's a lot less poluted but no go here; nw europe densly populated, we also have the artificial sunrise here 24/7 by means of greenhouses.

                                                                      • EA-3167 · 2 years ago

                                                                        Classic aurora move, I can almost hear the charged particles now...

                                                                        "Und doch habe ich allein, allein auf mich gestellt, ganz Europa erobert!"

                                                                        Sure you did charged particles, sure you did, but welcome to Europe's secret weapon: Light pollution!

                                                                        • consp · 2 years ago

                                                                          > Sure you did charged particles

                                                                          Well technically ... sodium vapor lamps are charged particles. But yea you are correct we're screwed.

                                                                        • Starlevel004 · 2 years ago

                                                                          Even in the light polluted London you can still see it, even if it's faint.

                                                                          • consp · 2 years ago

                                                                            From the ground I cannot see it (I'm a bit north of london latitude wise so it should be better), and we have nicely combination of areas of greenhouses and petrochemical companies burning off here so it might be far worse than central london unfortunately. I'm not too high up but my view north is quite ok ... and unnatural orangeish and void of any pink.

                                                                          • TomWhitwell · 2 years ago

                                                                            It’s just about visible (much more so through an iPhone camera) in central London right now

                                                                            • Reason077 · 2 years ago

                                                                              That's pretty incredible. Central London is so bright at night that very few stars are even visible usually.

                                                                            • evanb · 2 years ago

                                                                              I could see faint streaks from central Berlin. No doubt it’d look better from a deep darkness but even in the city it can be seen tonight.

                                                                              • fransje26 · 2 years ago

                                                                                > we also have the artificial sunrise here 24/7 by means of greenhouses.

                                                                                That's a Dutch thing. You can choose between being a great exporter of unripe, tasteless tomatoes, or seeing Aurora Borealis, but you can't have both..

                                                                                • clmul · 2 years ago

                                                                                  This is what I could see with my camera in the east of the Netherlands, and even with the naked eye I could easily see some red at times: https://imgur.com/a/kloWEOl

                                                                                  • fransje26 · 2 years ago

                                                                                    Very nice! Thank you for sharing!

                                                                                  • kubanczyk · 2 years ago

                                                                                    > a great exporter of unripe, tasteless tomatoes

                                                                                    The small ones are okay-ish (cherry tomatoes) if that makes you happier

                                                                                  • Angostura · 2 years ago

                                                                                    Well, I was watching it in East London last night

                                                                                    • bowsamic · 2 years ago

                                                                                      I was in middle of nowhere Sweden last week but the number of daylight hours are so high that far north that even in the dead middle of the night the sky is still blue

                                                                                    • _fizz_buzz_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                      Saw them in the west of Germany. Phone camera made them more visible. But also clearly visible with the naked eye.

                                                                                      • pixelpoet · 2 years ago

                                                                                        Looked outside just now around Bad Homburg in Frankfurt area, nothing :( So depressing

                                                                                        • docapotamus · 2 years ago

                                                                                          I live in rural very northern England. It’s incredible, clear with the naked eye. iPhone 14 camera with 3s exposure is out of this world (pun intended, but misleading)

                                                                                          • jon_adler · 2 years ago

                                                                                            Similar for me down south too (Cambridge). My first sighting and it is superb.

                                                                                            • AlexAndScripts · 2 years ago

                                                                                              I'm near Bristol. It's still absolutely stunning. It's not just to the north, either - it's everywhere.

                                                                                              • docapotamus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                Yep I noticed that to, it’s sort of bathing everywhere from zenith

                                                                                              • matsemann · 2 years ago

                                                                                                Yeah, it's often easy to make it look much better on camera than what it did in real life. Something to keep in mind if one feel one missed out, heh.

                                                                                                Also, timelapses of long exposures can give a wrong impression of how it moves. But has for a long time been the only way to actually see a video of it.

                                                                                                It's often not that slow and wavy in real life. It's more like watching an orchestra play, where suddenly someone plays a flute in the corner, and then a few moments later a trombone sounds from the other side. It's dramatic and beautiful when it's really on.

                                                                                                But modern video cameras are now good enough to capture this in real time, so hopefully we'll see more realistic videoes.

                                                                                                • docapotamus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                  Agree. Was surprised how well the phone pulled the colour out.

                                                                                                  Can’t find my DSLR unfortunately otherwise it’d be on the tripod.

                                                                                                  Had to wake the 6 year old for him to see this, once in a life time type of thing

                                                                                                  • schoen · 2 years ago

                                                                                                    If I understand correctly, I think there's a decent chance to have something similar at any given solar maximum (about every 11 years)

                                                                                                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_maximum

                                                                                                    But it's definitely not a sure thing, and this could very well be the biggest one for decades to come.

                                                                                                • penteract · 2 years ago

                                                                                                  In less rural northern England, it was faintly visible to me. If I hadn't been looking for the aurora specifically, I would have assumed it was a weird cloud. After walking a bit away from street lights I could make out a south facing arc spanning the sky directly overhead which went away within a few minutes.

                                                                                                  • mattbee · 2 years ago

                                                                                                    Since we're all scientists here, I'll report a negative from central York. My wife and I stood up in the attic looking out of the Velux for 10 minutes. It was dark, clear and we were could see from NE-ish to SE-ish. We couldn't really call it. A very subtle effect on a 10s smartphone exposure, mayyybe? I will compare with tonight.

                                                                                                    We once rented a beautiful, slightly remote house on a beach outside Reykjavik and one night, the sky danced for us. So I don't feel hard done-by.

                                                                                                    • davejohnclark · 2 years ago

                                                                                                      Interesting, maybe it depends on when you were looking? Also central York and we popped outside just after half eleven and the aurora was very visible to the naked eye, not in full multicolour but very clearly not a cloud, quite thick and radiating out from a centre in the sky almost all the way down to the horizon. We have a reasonably dark place we can look from near us (and where we got some photos on a smartphone camera that show a sky full of vivid purples and greens) but I could see it clearly enough from right outside our house even with the bright led streetlights all around.

                                                                                                      After 20 minutes it faded from view almost entirely and we went inside. I have no idea if it came back or what it was like beforehand, maybe we got very lucky or maybe it came and went through the night?

                                                                                                      • mattbee · 2 years ago

                                                                                                        I must have caught a calmer moment at midnight then! I'm in Murton so there's not a lot of light looking away from town.

                                                                                                      • danw1979 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                        I’m 5 miles to the east ! (Dunnington) and was gutted to hear this morning that I’d missed an amazing display here last night. Many people in the village saw the aurora in varied colours - greens, purples, pinks. Incredible photos… it sounds like it was just before midnight that it really kicked off.

                                                                                                      • idontwantthis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                        Is there a map of the world showing where it should be visible? I wonder how far I would need to drive.

                                                                                                          • idontwantthis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                            I can’t tell what to make of that. It looks normal northern to me but people are saying it’s going to be visible in Alabama tonight.

                                                                                                            • doodlebugging · 2 years ago

                                                                                                              Saw it in N Texas between dark +15minutes and about 2:30 this morning. Really nice. I've waited since 2003 to see another from my front yard. I caught the big ones during that last solar max including the X27 flare auroras. This show came from a merging of several X-class flares in quick succession. There was an X5.7 today that may also give us a show in 2-3 days depending on whether it had an earth-directed component.

                                                                                                              spaceweather.com spaceweatherlive.com

                                                                                                              other links in related posts also have additional sites to track things like this. Good luck.

                                                                                                          • _ph_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                                            Where are you located?

                                                                                                            • idontwantthis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                              SW USA

                                                                                                              • _ph_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                It really depends how far south you are and how strong the solar storm will get. You should look for some dark place close up. But it might be, that it is only visible on the northern parts of the US. Even seeing it there is quite uncommon.

                                                                                                                • doodlebugging · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                  This one was visible all the way to at lest San Antonio, Texas and the Florida Keys. I won't be surprised to see photos from Mexico. Nice show.

                                                                                                                  • idontwantthis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                    I couldn’t see anything over here even way out of town.

                                                                                                                    • doodlebugging · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                      To the naked eye it was a slight purple, pink, red tinge to the northern sky. With a 3 second exposure on my phone camera it was vivid purple to pink.

                                                                                                                      To really see it you need a short timed exposure with aperture opened up on the camera - so small F-stop or high-speed film setting for low light, >800 speed.

                                                                                                                      I am right outside a huge metro area and directly in front of me there is a large warehouse facility with floodlights on all night long. In spite of this I could see the slight color change in the clouds (it was very cloudy here until nearly the end of the show) since the normal light color tends towards blues and oranges depending on how far off of north you are looking.

                                                                                                                      I saw red curtains here back in 2003 during a storm that also was visible in Mexico. I knew where I needed to be in my yard to be able to see things. That display began a little east of north and walked slowly west until it faded. With that in mind, that is how I started watching for lighting changes this time. The auroral oval moves from east to west during these events and for me here in N Texas it appears to be visible only for about 20 degrees either side of north before it fades. In general, if the oval extends to Kansas or into Oklahoma then we have a shot at seeing something down here since we can see the upper atmosphere from this distance. It's a bit like trying to photograph sprites above thunderstorms in that you need to be a long way away from the storm to be able to see the activity above it. I did take a photo behind me to the south and it shows aurora too so that is how I knew this was a powerful storm that would be visible a lot farther south than my place.

                                                                                                                      We should have more of these events over the next 2-3 years so keep your eyes open. Find Polaris at your location and monitor space weather reports to get a feel for the likelihood that you can see something there.

                                                                                                                      Good luck.

                                                                                                          • marmakoide · 2 years ago

                                                                                                            Wow, I just went outside (South West of France) to plug the car for charging before going to bed.

                                                                                                            I noticed unusual, faint light patterns in the night sky, like long spikes coming from the North. It was not the Milky Way, we can see every clear night. Color was mostly gray slightly pink. Wondered what was that ... My first aurora !!!

                                                                                                            • mysterydip · 2 years ago

                                                                                                              > It was not the Milky Way, we can see every clear night.

                                                                                                              I'm exceedingly jealous. I don't think I've ever lived somewhere that I could see it, no matter how clear the night. Looking at images of "north america at night" vs "europe at night" I can see why.

                                                                                                              • IG_Semmelweiss · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                In most locations around the world , I think you are a 3 hour drive from a camping trip with milky way nightime exposure.

                                                                                                                Try it out! Enlist some of your hiking friends. They'll tell you where to go.

                                                                                                                • Avalaxy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                  With the milky way it's the same thing as the auroras. I went camping in the middle of nowhere USA, and on a clear night you can absolutely not see the milkyway the way it's portrayed in photos. It looks waaaaaaaaay less clear. You need a very long exposure camera to see it the same way as on the internet. The only difference with Europe is that I saw more stars, but none of those nebulas.

                                                                                                                  • BytesAndGears · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                    Not entirely true, I was out hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and that was the best Milky Way view I’ve ever seen. It looked just like the crazy photos with millions of stars. Just laid on a rock staring at it for an hour

                                                                                                                • amatecha · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                  Go take some photos with your camera -- it will pick up brilliant colours from what looks like super dim/grey "clouds/glow" to our eyes :)

                                                                                                                • matsemann · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                  Where do people get their forecasts? I often use this one, but it's not very usable outside Norway. Great if you click into each forecast (click the image) and get more details. Like how it actually covers the sky in that location. So that I can use that to plan (doesn't matter if it's strong if it's in a direction I can't see it) https://site.uit.no/spaceweather/data-and-products/aurora/os...

                                                                                                                  Used to use a NOAA page, but they changed it a while ago and don't find it as useful anymore. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-exper...

                                                                                                                  Some weather services also have a kp index, but I often feel those can't be trusted, and don't tell the whole story. And aurora is quite hit or miss, so need more updated data.

                                                                                                                  I have an app on my phone (AuroraNotifier) that chimes when there's hope. And then I use these others to plan a bit better. But some more interactive map akin to the uit.no one but where I can place myself around would be nice.

                                                                                                                  Edit: someone posted this below, looks nice, have some other kinds of data https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en.html

                                                                                                                  Edit2: https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/space/surface/level/an...

                                                                                                                  • jimmygrapes · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                    Generally I wake up and assess which of my body parts are experiencing issues. Pressure differentials play havoc upon internal pockets. Other than that I go outside and feel the temperature and humidity and witness the general movement (or abcence of movement) of cloud formations. I smell the air. Surprisingly, these sensations are pretty close to accurate when it comes to predicting local weather.

                                                                                                                    I am not sure how to do that for space weather yet.

                                                                                                                    • coryfklein · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                      What latitude do we expect to be able to see this in the USA?

                                                                                                                      • bsdooby · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                        Crazy, even Bern is bathed in Northern Lights

                                                                                                                        • MichaelZuo · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                          Just amazing... I've only ever seen these kinds of photos at the north pole before.

                                                                                                                        • relyks · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                          Are we supposed to be able to see anything in North America?

                                                                                                                            • relyks · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                              Thanks! I have a small chance of seeing something lol

                                                                                                                              • mcint · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                Keep in mind, this is only a 30 minute leading forecast. And day-night status has a strong effect on the ionosphere, to the extent that radio stations have different regulated broadcast power day versus night, and amateur radio folks bounce radio off it at night.

                                                                                                                                • 0xcafecafe · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                  Italy is not shown in the forecast zone but pics are surfacing from northern parts of it. Does that mean there is hope for southern US?

                                                                                                                                  • sseagull · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                    I dunno how far south you mean, but we see it in SW Virginia (which is outside the forecast zones that I’ve seen).

                                                                                                                                • idlewords · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                  I'd wait until after sunset.

                                                                                                                                  • relyks · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                    Indeed :)

                                                                                                                                  • r2_pilot · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                    It's even visible in north Mississippi.

                                                                                                                                    • russdill · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                      I saw a very faint red and just a tiny bit of green from a Phoenix/LA flight. 34N

                                                                                                                                    • hnthrowaway0328 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                      In Quebec and eagerly waiting for the sunset. Ah a few weeks ago the sun was the old lover and now please go away...

                                                                                                                                      • insane_dreamer · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                        Aurora aside, that is a very cool website.

                                                                                                                                        • impish19 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                          These Barbie promos are getting out of hand

                                                                                                                                          • hippich · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                            If I am in Texas, should I take care of anything? Like flip breakers or disconnect solar panels?

                                                                                                                                            • _ph_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                              No, this is all quite harmless.

                                                                                                                                              • billsmithaustin · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                All of that. Plus, wrap your head in aluminum foil.

                                                                                                                                                • _hcuq · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                  Oil the guns. Count the ammo.. .

                                                                                                                                                • idlewords · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                  It never hurts to fire wildly into the air, Yosemite Sam style.

                                                                                                                                                  • ta988 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                    No only an issue with really long lengths of cables. Electrical companies have to mitigate

                                                                                                                                                  • mcv · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                    I heard the aurora would be visible in Netherland, so living in Amsterdam I just went outside to check. Nothing. Maybe some very vague lighter bands in some places? Cities have too much light for this sort of thing.

                                                                                                                                                    • andrepd · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                      You're in the most light-polluted region of the continent. Unlikely you can see anything I'd wager x)

                                                                                                                                                      • grsmvg · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                        I saw visible pink bands from my balcony in Amsterdam, showing bright pink fading to green when looking through my iPhone. And yes, lots of light pollution here. Shows how crazy strong this northern light was.

                                                                                                                                                      • willmadden · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                        You have to drive away from the city lights, turn off screens/lights, and let your eyes adjust. Cities are light polluted.

                                                                                                                                                      • panzi · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                        Thank you! Just made some (blurry) long exposure photos on an old digital camera. Can't see it with the naked eye here.

                                                                                                                                                        • complex_pi · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                          Well visible in Belgium starting around 23:30 ! Even with the naked eye ! (From outside the city)

                                                                                                                                                          • DoingIsLearning · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                            Still true now? In the netherlands hard to tell anything. Certainly nothing on the level of the Swiss pictures being shared.

                                                                                                                                                            • complex_pi · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                              I stayed up until about 1AM only. Views from the mountains are hard to match in any case 8-)

                                                                                                                                                              • clmul · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                Around 1 AM at night this was the view in the east of the Netherlands: https://imgur.com/a/kloWEOl

                                                                                                                                                                With the naked eye I could see moving bright "clouds", and sometimes see streaks of red inside them. After 1:30 it died out quite rapidly for me.

                                                                                                                                                            • hyperluz · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                              Is that happening because Earth is loosing its magnetic field and the end is near? ;)

                                                                                                                                                              • phyzome · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                Pretty sure we get aurorae because we have a strong magnetic field...

                                                                                                                                                              • alpha_squared · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                This also appears to be happening in the southern hemisphere as well and growing brighter. My layman understanding is auroras are the result of coronal mass ejections interacting with Earth's atmosphere, but I don't recall these incidents being large enough to be so visible in the northern and southern hemispheres simultaneously.

                                                                                                                                                                • bsdooby · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                  Carrington comes to mind…

                                                                                                                                                                  • idlewords · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                    That had aurora visible in Florida and Hawaii. It's going to take a little more effort from the Sun to match that.

                                                                                                                                                                    • willmadden · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                      Not for long. The earth's magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate as the poles shift.

                                                                                                                                                                      I believe we've spent far too much time worrying about CO2 and not nearly enough worrying about the dangers from our sun.

                                                                                                                                                                      • twojacobtwo · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                        > The earth's magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate as the poles shift.

                                                                                                                                                                        Got any scientific sources for that claim?

                                                                                                                                                                        > I believe we've spent far too much time worrying about CO2 and not nearly enough worrying about the dangers from our sun.

                                                                                                                                                                        Other than hardening our power grid to the effects of solar storms, what exactly could we do WRT the sun and the magnetic field?

                                                                                                                                                                        Also, given our serious lack of progress on climate change targets and the glacial pace (pun intended) at which it has been accepted as 1) real and 2) anthropogenic, I think saying 'too much time' is inaccurate.

                                                                                                                                                                        • vixen99 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                          I wonder what you (or any of us) would like to say to N. J. Ayuk, Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber:- (his words, not mine)

                                                                                                                                                                          “Africans don’t hate Oil and Gas companies. We love Oil and today we love gas even more because we know gas will give us a chance to industrialize. No country has ever been developed by fancy wind and green hydrogen. Africans see Oil and Gas as a path to success and a solution to their problems. The demonization of oil and gas companies will not work.”

                                                                                                                                                                          and this is very far from an isolated opinion in the developing world. Given the amount of Western human capital applied to reducing dependence on fossil fuel it's a somewhat sobering experience to take a look at the Mauna Loa CO2 rate of increase. Can you see any significant decrease in recent years. I can't.

                                                                                                                                                                          https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

                                                                                                                                                                          • willmadden · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                            1) go to perplexity.ai

                                                                                                                                                                            2) type in "Is the earth's magnetic field weakening?"

                                                                                                                                                                            3) read the summary and click the sources if you don't believe it.

                                                                                                                                                                            Read this about your CO2. The CO2 in our atmosphere is already at a concentration where the narrow band of wavelengths CO2 absorbs is fully saturated. This means more CO2 isn't going to cause more warming, because there is no more light in its opaque wavelengths to absorb. Also the pattern of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere vs surface temperature does not indicated that CO2 causes warming, but that CO2 levels rise after warming has already occurred. Policy around CO2 is hindering human progress and has caused massive economic damage. The models were all wrong, and this paper explains the reason.

                                                                                                                                                                            https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266649682...

                                                                                                                                                                        • pyuser583 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                          Current storm is visible in Florida and Southern Texas, per NOAA.

                                                                                                                                                                          • vundercind · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                            Like, visible visible? I’m a lot farther north than that and if I hadn’t known there was something going on, I’d not have noticed it. It kinda shows up on camera, but naked eye viewing is not even worth a walk to the nearest window. Nothing to see, really.

                                                                                                                                                                            • Scoundreller · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                              I’m also guessing light pollution was less of a thing in 1859

                                                                                                                                                                              • idlewords · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                Having your eyes dark-adapted (even a bit) makes a big difference. Here (Maine) I couldn't see anything out the window, or much of anything stepping outside, but after two minutes could see large-scale aurora across the entire sky, despite being near a bunch of streetlights and passing cars.

                                                                                                                                                                        • notfish · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                          This is the biggest storm since 2003! We hit a G5 on the SWPC geomagnetic storm reading, and my team had to power down components on our satellites to keep them safe!

                                                                                                                                                                          • dgellow · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                            Now that’s a badass sentence. What is your team working on?

                                                                                                                                                                            • kortilla · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                              Based on the about: “Code monkey at the elongated muskrat’s not-earth corporation”

                                                                                                                                                                              Starlink

                                                                                                                                                                              • throwaway290 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                Based on lack of response, starshield or some other defense or spy sats

                                                                                                                                                                            • madaxe_again · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                              While I was happily posting photos of the ionic chaos over your network throughout. Nice one.

                                                                                                                                                                            • qclibre22 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                              Typo, that's NOAA, not NASA.

                                                                                                                                                                              • s-xyz · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                This is so freaking cool

                                                                                                                                                                                • saalweachter · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                  What's the lowest latitude it's being seen from in Europe?

                                                                                                                                                                                • aeonik · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                  Could a G4 to G5 storm disrupt air planes while in flight?

                                                                                                                                                                                  Do they ever cancel air travel for this level of storm?

                                                                                                                                                                                  • swader999 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                    Yes, if it's a Boeing plane.

                                                                                                                                                                                    • 77pt77 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                      Regular atmosphere is enough for that...

                                                                                                                                                                                    • ta988 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                      No and it is beautiful when you are flying north routes at night.

                                                                                                                                                                                    • grafelic · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                      I feel I need to report my experience from Denmark, Jutland.

                                                                                                                                                                                      It started with white broad streaks, which most of all looked like fog, but then perhaps after 10 minutes or so, we saw colors of red, purple and green begin to emerge from the these streaks. Most astoundingly it all seemed to emanate from a fluctuating point in the middle of the sky. If you looked closely at this point you could see it fall into itself, morphing and shifting continuously.

                                                                                                                                                                                      We went around the house and we could purple streaks at the top and orange to red patches at the bottom of the sky.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Colors observed: Whitish blue, Green, Purple, Red, and Orange

                                                                                                                                                                                      An absolutely a beautiful experience.

                                                                                                                                                                                      • niutech · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                        Can you share a photo?

                                                                                                                                                                                        • grafelic · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                          I took one semi successful photo using my crappy beat-down a20e Samsung phone.

                                                                                                                                                                                          It doesn't do what we saw justice at all.

                                                                                                                                                                                          https://imgur.com/5mlD22W

                                                                                                                                                                                          • frfl · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                            grafelic's image looks totally black on my crappy laptop monitor unless I turn brightness up to 100%, even then it's barely noticeable.

                                                                                                                                                                                            Here's a color enhanced version of grafelic's photo that shows the color bands more easily,

                                                                                                                                                                                            https://i.imgur.com/IS8JWD8.jpeg

                                                                                                                                                                                            Added some blur after color adjustments to remove pixelation artifacts.

                                                                                                                                                                                            • bozhark · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                              I’m b mobile, it’s still black with a lil highlight.

                                                                                                                                                                                              Near, but definitely not retrospective

                                                                                                                                                                                            • gareth_untether · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                              When I took photos of the northern lights on my Sony RX1 the colours became much stronger. I assumed all digital cameras captured the colours better than our eyes.

                                                                                                                                                                                              • dylan604 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                Yes, an electronic sensor is much more sensitive than our eyes. However, even within digital sensors, some are more sensitive than others. Add that sensitivity with the ability to do long exposure, and you can capture things we will never see with our naked eyes. Even with binoculars or telescopes, our eyes will just seem more photons, but pretty much without the color. That's where the digital sensors really "shine"

                                                                                                                                                                                                • erikbye · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Our eyes definitely do not see "pretty much without the color". Born and raised in Norway I've watched more aurora borealis than I care to count. On many occassions you could see all kinds of colors and dancing lights with the naked eye, very strong and vivid, too. Important to be in a dark environment without light pollution. At the arctic circle during polar night you will see northern lights that almost match the most stunning photos you have seen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                • bavell · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Incredible!

                                                                                                                                                                                              • joshvm · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                Currently pretty good at the South Pole. The pink skies are wild. Green auroras are fairlty common over the winter, but it's unusual for it to be this red.

                                                                                                                                                                                                If you're interested in a real time video, here's one I captured a few weeks ago from our "back yard" (excuse the Instagram link)

                                                                                                                                                                                                https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6T27pEO7dQ/?igsh=eXJyOGtuY2l...

                                                                                                                                                                                                  • cinntaile · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Unrelated but why are you at the South Pole?

                                                                                                                                                                                                    • taneq · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Why aren’t you?! :P

                                                                                                                                                                                                      • ta1243 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                        All the cool people are there

                                                                                                                                                                                                        • GTP · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Cool as in cold? :D

                                                                                                                                                                                                        • robk · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Amazing thanks for sharing

                                                                                                                                                                                                      • sebastianconcpt · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Thank you for sharing that. I wonder at what speed the morphing happen, also a sense of proportion. Very hard to capture that in anything but direct experience.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        • nine_k · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Per Wikipedia, most auroras are 300 to 600 km wide, and occur at 90 to 150 km above surface. It' below LEO (300 km), but it's considered outer space already. You actually see a thing the size of a mountain range shining and morphing above you in space.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          • playingalong · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Not sure here in proper continental Europe, but the usual sightings in the Arctic Circle are typically very short. Like it shows up for a minute or even not so. Then you wait an hour and another sighting for tens of seconds. Obviously sometimes it lasts for hours, but this is nothing frequent (in given location).

                                                                                                                                                                                                          • kzrdude · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Thee scale is what the pictures don't capture. The color is stronger in the camera but at some point there was a red or pink streak across half the sky. From zenith and down 1/2 way on one side and 2/3 on the other side. As usual, it's hard for a camera to capture the feeling of being there and having it all above you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            The scale of change I saw yesterday is that it fades in or changes over five seconds maybe, it's not changing faster than that. The most intense lights were over some 20 minute period maybe and then slowly it was mostly disappearing again.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            • beretguy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                              Can somebody link not to Twitter, please?

                                                                                                                                                                                                              • mk89 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Wow that's magnificent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              • madaxe_again · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                I’m a few thousand kilometres south of you in Portugal - here, we got the side view of what was above you, and it was spectacular - pink sky underlit by blue and green filled with vast columns. It really gave me the sense of being a tiny thing on a virtually naked sphere hurtling through the void - seeing such titanic structures really puts things into scale.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                • irthomasthomas · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I was out flying a camera drone on the river Dee between Liverpool and North Wales filming the sunset, when I started getting magnetic interference warnings. At the same time, I started to see flashes in the sky. Then my vision was filled with sparkling lights. A few minutes later I got an aurora warning from my brother and the aurora app. KP 8-9

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  As the sun went down I was waking through a woodland. I thought the dark would help my eyes to see the aurora, and I could point my camera away from the light pollution of Liverpool and maybe catch some colour with a long exposure.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Suddenly, I realised the colour of the aurora was coming through the trees, and getting brighter. I wasn't expecting it to be visible to naked eye like this. In these latitudes the advice is to set your camera to highest iso and slowest shutter speed and hope to catch a little colour. I wasn't expecting this! So I packed up quick and ran through the woods and into open fields. There, directly above me was this intense white light, with white arms forming a sort-of cross. The longest arm formed an arch over the whole sky, and where they reached the earth, on either side they became colourful, like a twinkling rainbow stretching out to space.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I didn't have the equipment or the wits to get a good photo. I just threw myself on the ground and lay on my back watching.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Wildest thing I ever saw. Absolutely awesome.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  When I regain my composure, I will upload some photos somewhere (where, though?) and edit this comment.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • 3np · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    > and edit this comment.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    You have like 30min to edit and there's a timeout for replies too so maybe put the link in your profile if it gets later <3

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • fransje26 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Which app have you been using for the aurora warning?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • jfk13 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Not who you were replying to, but I've had the AuroraWatch UK app installed for a while now (and yes, we enjoyed last night's display, after being alerted by the app).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • fransje26 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Thank you for sharing, I'll take a look at it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • Moru · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        You did the right thing, the correct way is to just enjoy it with your eyes. There are enough photos and timelapses on the net anyway. They can't capture the speed of the real thing since you need pretty long exposure time to get enough light.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • dom96 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I was in the area too. Decided to go for a drive to Southport beach to try and catch it and saw.. nothing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Yesterday evening I tried Crosby beach. Also nothing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Did I just go at the wrong time? It was between 11pm and 1am.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • hammyhavoc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Hello from the Wirral!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • b33j0r · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Poetry comes to us when we can’t say exactly how it made us feel. As a son of Jurgen, I appreciated your account.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • gmuslera · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Those are close to the places in Europe where they are growing triffids?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • DonaldFisk · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Scotland, 56 degrees north. I expected to see the aurora near the northern horizon, but it was visible east, west and even south, from 11:00pm (2200hrs UTC) until 12:15am (2315UTC). Easily visible to the naked eye. Took good photos on 1 second exposures, ISO 2500.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • manx · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Do you mind sharing a photo?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • lsllc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Anyone have any DSLR settings recommendations? (newbie here, Canon EOS R5).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Located North Eastern US, just about approaching dusk. Fingers crossed!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • eloisius · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Crank your ISO up and play with shutter speed. You need a tripod to capture anything satisfactory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • esmein · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Don't be afraid of Iso, you might want manual focus, mirrorless cameras even as good as the R5 have a hard time focusing on "nothing at infinity". Largest aperture your lens can do (biggest hole, smallest f number) and the recommended shutter speeds.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I had luck with iso 3200, f1.4 and 1/6s shutter handheld on a sony a7iv with a 35mm f1.4 GM.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • lsllc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Thanks! Now I just need some cosmic rays to light the sky!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • knolan · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tripod. Long exposure and keep ISO lowish. You may need to manually focus as there won’t be a clear object to focus on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Shoot RAW and you can tweak the image better to pull down the brightness of the sky to help the colours stand out.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • dddrh · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Use a tripod and use a remote or set a 2 second delay on your shutter press if you start using longer exposures at low iso (anything longer than 1/10 of a second IMO)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Settings really depend on the effect you are trying to capture: - if you want to try and capture it like your eye sees it: high iso (as high as you can stand) and aim for between 1/500 and 1/30. - if you want to capture a more painterly look with the whole sky colored in: low iso (I’d start at 200) and long exposure >3 seconds. Probably between 3 and 30 seconds depending on the available light.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Those should get you started to experiment and find what you like. Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Oh yea. Turn off the focus light, turn off the screen, and turn off the red blinking indicators. Turn all the lights off so you can preserve your night vision.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • lsllc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Thanks, I got some good pictures! AF is def. a problem ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • nico · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This is related to the cycles of Earth’s core

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Our planet’s magnetic field is “entangled” with the Sun’s activity

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This unusual flare means unusual activity for our magnetic field, hence for the core as well

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          It would be cool to have some realtime comparison/visualization of Earths magnetic core activity, vs solar flares

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • robxorb · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Could you provide sources for this? Sounds plausible, given it is electromagnetic energy.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • nico · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Just speculating

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              It’s known that the magnetic core is generating/sustaining the magnetic field, which means that anything that happens to the field, has some sort of counterpart in the core

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              So it would be cool to have that data: what happens inside Earth’s core when a big magnetic event is affecting it’s magnetic field

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • bamboozled · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The earth is the greatest spaceship we’ll ever know. Complete magic is this phenomenon.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Feels like one is engulfed in the Aurora when it’s strong. First time I experienced it the arctic circle actually scared me.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • will1am · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              It's really damn beautiful, but it's scary. Whenever there are events on Earth that aren't typical of nature at regular times for some reason I always think it's not a good sign..

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • throwaway11460 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Don't worry, it's very typical. Just the timescales are literally astronomical.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • pelagicAustral · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I'm in the southern hemisphere (near Antarctica) and the sight is absolutely insane, almost terrifying... its a bright red aurora. Never seen anything like it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • tracyhenry · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                please post a photo!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • jiehong · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    That’s deep red! Quite a different sight!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • tracyhenry · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Thank you, this looks amazing

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • proxyon · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    people live near antartica?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • marmakoide · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Ushaiha and the Falklands?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • vitorgrs · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Even in Uruguay it can be seen... Incredible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • jeffmess · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I can see brown I can see blue I can see violet sky…

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • retrac · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If you want the best possible view with the naked eye, give them a chance to adapt to the dark properly. The human eye is about 100,000 more sensitive after an hour in total darkness. A smartphone screen or car headlight is enough to undo it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • kragen · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          car headlights are brighter than the sun from a short enough distance; perhaps you think we can guess what distance you're talking about seeing the car headline from, but actually you have to be explicit about it

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • throwaway_ab · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            In the dark notice how much light comes from a phone and how much that illuminates the person holding the phone.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            A car headlight shining your way from hundreds of meters even over 1km will often illuminate that person far more than their phone screen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            So if the phone screen is enough to undo the hour long eyes adjusting to the dark duration, then the car headlights at almost any realistic distance causes an undo.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • kragen · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              a headlight a kilometer away may be spread over 36000 square meters including your face. (more detailed info on headlight antenna gain would be appreciated.) a 1200-lumen high beam over that area is 0.03 lux

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              a 500 nit phone screen emitting over about a steradian from an 80mm × 160mm area is 6.4 lumens, but at night you usually turn it down to minimum brightness, say 0.6 lumens. (i haven't measured.) at a distance of 300mm that steradian is 0.09m², so it's about 6 lux

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              so the cellphone is about 200 times brighter than the headlight at that distance, and that's also observable from looking at people using cellphones walking on the highway

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              but the person i was asking for more detail didn't specify that the headlight is pointed at your face; and in most situations where you can see headlights, they're not pointed at you. that's just a detail you filled in

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • lambdasquirrel · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Makes sense.. all the serious astronomy apps are in black and red, and back before we had phones, we used to use red flashlights if we needed to consult our charts.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • dylan604 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              just like all of the 80s military action films with red filtered flashlights or CNC rooms on ships. sometimes, meme like content isn't just made up. as an amateur (at best) astro type person, you learn very quickly how true how quickly a brief flash of white light can ruin your night vision. walking around during the day without sun glasses can also extend the amount of time it takes your eyes to acclimate to the dark. however, once you do allow your eyes to acclimate to the dark, it is amazing to me still how much we can actually see.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • solarwindy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Last night in particular, hiking through the forest there was no need for a flashlight at all.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • dylan604 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  On full moons, you can read a book and see the shadows cast by the moonlight. It's fun to take someone to see it for the first time who originally do not believe the shadows are possible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • punnerud · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Use the old pirate trick and keep an eye patch over one of the eyes, and switch when going outside. They used it to be able to see inside the boat going from bright sunlight.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • noman-land · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This is genius.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • olive247 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Wait no way? That’s where the pirate eye patch trope comes from? There was a practical reason?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • xanderlewis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I had assumed it was because, being a pirate, you were more likely to have had one of your eyes poked out during some sort of mêlée.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    But that’s much more interesting…

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • scientism · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I've read another theory: It's because of the sun damage to their eye from using a sextant for navigation. Haven't been able to confirm it though.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • samus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Such damage is creeping and the brain can just hallucinate the blank patches in the vision away, until only like 10% of the retina is left and it just doesn't work anymore. These days, dumbass laserheads are the most likely to suffer from that problem.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        It's amazing how much of our conscious experience is hallucination, and yet a lot of people are disparaging LLMs for doing just the same...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • crashmat · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          probably because when humans pay full attention and think clearly they can not hallucinate for 99% of things they can sense (disregarfing optical illusion), but there is no 'pay attention and dont hallucinate' switch for LLMs.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • samus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            People are bullshitting just the same about topics they know nothing about. They often also won't shut about when others tell them and even when they themselves know that they know nothing. To some extent this is necessary for humans to function at all, and the scientific process starts out from uneducated guesses and rigorously refines them and casts away what doesn't hold up to empiric data.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Optical illusions are evidence of the pile of hacks that our senses and our consciousness use to make sense of the world. I think it is really difficult to fully disengage from the biases this induces, and we are sadly best at perceiving such flaws in others. This might be one of the reasons why humans have to socialize with other humans to maintain mental health.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • 4hg4ufxhy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This would explain why only pirates wear them rather than also ordinary seamen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • Jare · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        There's no evidence that this use was real. Mythbusters tried it and said the trick itself does work (which any of has may already know), but who knows if it was even practical in a pirate boat, vs the loss of stereo vision etc.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The whole idea of pirates wearing eyepatches seems simply the replication of one particularly colorful pirate archetype over centuries of literature and tales.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • swiftcoder · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I feel like the advantages of stereo vision may be oversold in this scenario. At the distances that sailing vessels would engage there's limited need for binocular depth cues - they really only start to come into play at the point where you would begin a boarding action

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • Jare · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            But the idea of the patches-for-night-vision is precisely to have one eye covered during the boarding, so when you enter the insides of the enemy boat that eye is ready for seeing in the dark.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • lukan · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Have you ever tried to climb a rope ladder on a moving ship?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Stereo vision is helpful on ships (and allmost everywhere else where you need eyes), even when not boarding.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • asicsarecool · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I don't have binocular vision. I lived aboard a sailboat for a few years. I'm quite active with rock climbing etc and I honestly don't think I would be able to do anything better if I had binocular vision...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Just a thought

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • lukan · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Good for you!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  But I know I am worse doing climbing etc. with one eye.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  It is probably something you can train and get used to, that it is not such a big deal, but I cannot imagine doing it on the same level one eyed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • unkulunkulu · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    But then again, you did not have enough motivation to spend time learning it. A pirate captain might have enough to actually train this way.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • mypalmike · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Yup. Here in the city of Seattle, I went to a park where there were lots of people and unfortunately, lots of light. I could see some wispy light in the sky, and it was interesting to look at but not very dynamic.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        After I got home, I just laid down in the grass in the back yard where it's fairly dark. After about 15 minutes, I had a pretty good view of what looked a bit like streaky clouds throughout the sky. It was still somewhat faint but the movement was fantastic to watch.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • petarb · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I missed the news around this. Can someone share why this is happening? I thought this was only visible more north and usually green. Thanks!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • pizza · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Largest solar storm in 20 years

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • DeepYogurt · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          How long ahead of time can one forecast these events?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • superkuh · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Realistically only about half an hour. There are instruments at the L1 lagrange point that can measure the properties of the solar wind and/or CME as they pass and allowed real informed responses to events.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            There are also very, very simplified CME propagation models (WSA-ENLIL, etc) that can start with some assumptions and give a reasonable idea about when the CME will arrive within ~12 hours.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            But for every time the simulations succesfully predict severe geomagnetic events or the like they give false positives a couple dozen times. The simulations cannot predict the geoeffectiveness.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • nomilk · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Anyone know of sources/sites that track the magnitude of geomagnetic storms as a time series? (interested to gauge the magnitude of recent ones relative to those of the past, similarly to how we may do so for earthquakes)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • sarusso · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Visible in North Italy as well. Unexpected!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • LelouBil · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I'm near paris and don't see anything :(

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • ninkendo · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Checking in from Detroit here… the aurora is actually super visible on the iPhone camera. Much more than from the naked eye (although they are slightly visible… I have a lot of light pollution around me though.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I’m curious what causes it to come in better in my iPhones sensors… different wavelengths perhaps?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • ipqk · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  longer exposure times.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • ninkendo · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The longer exposure doesn’t seem to affect other aspects of the night sky though, I can see stars way better with the naked eye than my phone will show. That’s probably just because of stars being point sources and hard for the camera to focus on in an otherwise black night sky.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • exitb · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Another factor is color - our eyes don’t notice it well in low light, so the patches don’t stand out. Camera sensor is equally sensitive to colors at all brightness levels.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • cozzyd · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Just saw it in downtown Chicago (by the lake). Faint, but visible with naked eye. Easier to capture with my pixel 8 than with my (handheld) DSLR, even with a fast lens...kicking myself for not grabbing my tripod

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • chicagojoe · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Fellow Chicagoan here! I went down one of the piers and saw it as well. At first it looked like cirrus clouds but the colors emerged as my eyes acclimated. I thought it was my brain hallucinating the details it expected but my phone validated what I was seeing. Truly stunning even with just a 2sec exposure.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • dgellow · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Damn, I missed it

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • aio2 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      lmao same

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • sph · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The only day in years that I decide to go to bed earlier than usual, this happens...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • sva_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I just came home, went up the mountains. Absolutely crazy what I was able to see. I live somewhere mid to north Germany. Super stoked to go further up north based on what I saw in the sky. I have to say the images don't even nearly do justice to what I saw tonight, it was absolutely amazing. I spent some 6 hours up there. Just poor phone images, sorry.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        https://imgur.com/a/lPI9EXc

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • dylan604 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from sheer curiosity, I had to try to see what was in that image. just a meager push of the exposure revealed some color on top of the horrid compression:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          https://imgur.com/a/D7MGjoS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • rl3 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          It's dawn now, did anyone happen to screenshot that page during the night?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The mosaic of pink/purple skies was rather beautiful, but I'm afraid preserving it slipped my mind.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • Geee · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I just found out that if you select a webcam you can actually go back in time, or even do a 'backwards timelapse' from the view menu. There's also a 'best of' which seems to have a collection of quite nice shots from all webcams: https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/bestof/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • rl3 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Awesome, thank you!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • roschdal · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            It's the apocalypse.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • TylerE · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Can't see it from where I am in North Carolina as it's sadly overcast, but I'm sseeing photos from friends as far south as Georgia and Alabama of vivid pink auroras.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • squarefoot · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Any Ham Radio operators here can share their experience if and how much it affected radio communications?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • tarxvf · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I heard CW on 144.2MHz with auroral flutter meaning (if I understand correctly) it propagated through or off the aurora.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  So that's cool!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • sagischwarz · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Here are some phone pics from my home village in Germany: https://www.nowhereinparticular.xyz/polarlichter.html

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My brother, who is a hobby astronomer, called me and sent me outside. Initially, I saw only a faint red glow in the northeast of the sky, but after a few minutes, my eyes adapted and I could see how it slowly moved and changed its form over time. I stayed outside for maybe 15 minutes and then went back inside. An hour later, I went outside again and almost the whole sky was shining in all different colors and forms, from patches to clouds to pillars that seemed to support the heavens, ever chaning. Incredible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • weinzierl · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Is your village north, middle or south Germany. Just curious how much I missed:-/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • sagischwarz · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Mid-west, in an area called Hunsrück.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • weinzierl · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Thanks, I'm in Bavaria, so there might have been be a chance and the other comments say there are more solar storms upcoming. Definitely will have my eyes in the sky tonight. The images are amazing, btw.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • samus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          It should definitely have been possible to see it from Bavaria. It was definitely visible in northern Italy. Big cities might have to much light pollution though. Let's hope we get lucky tonight.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • h4ckerle · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          OT but I didn't realise until now the Hunsrück was a real place... I always assumed it was invented for Werwölfe von Düsterwald!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • teekert · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        In southern Netherlands at the coast, with a 10 sec exposure, iPhone 12 mini, main cam, I was able to see some pink and green with streaks. To my eyes it was like faint clouds that changed to quickly to be clouds, better visible when I didn’t look straight at them. Your pics are something else, but what was it like to your eyes?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • sagischwarz · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The colors in my pics are a bit more intense than they were to the eyes, but not by that much. They were all clearly visible, including all the structures, glowing. It is pretty dark where I come from, the next city is dozens of kilometers away.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • fch42 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            From Bournemouth in the UK, I got the same impression as you - looking like cloud sheets, but more straight lines than, say, what windblown contrails look like. No clear color visible to me but the location wasn't anywhere near "dark".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I've seen impressive (and colorful) aurora before, and can well imagine it might've looked splendid in (darker) places. Don't give up ... maybe more on the way.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • clmul · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              In the east of the Netherlands I was seeing something similar to what you describe, but when particularly active I also saw a reddish glow in places. This is a timelapse I made around the same time: https://imgur.com/a/kloWEOl

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • beretguy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Thank you for not linking to Twitter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • tolerantgravity · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              9 hours later and we saw similar sights in the Pacific Northwest in the US! Pretty awesome.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • msephton · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Can't believe I slept through this.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • dan_can_code · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    You may get another chance tonight.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • xanderlewis · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I’m in Aberdeen for the weekend. Saw nothing whatsoever.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • wiredfool · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Me too, but it’s because I slept through it. Feeling better now.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • weinzierl · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I am sad that I missed it. I there some sort of forecast service that tells when there is a good chance to see an aurora in a particular place?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • ricardo81 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I also missed it. Meant to be happening again tonight though.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • Ladsko · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Tonight at which location? Europe? I might go for a impromptu camping trip!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • ricardo81 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Apparently much of the Northern Hemisphere, going by how many photos I've seen across the world from last night.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Here in the UK the skies should be clear.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • doodlebugging · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If you go to https://spaceweather.com they have a link for text alerts when these things are about to happen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          That is one way.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I visit that site and a similar site for CME and space weather information: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          There is a lot to see and to follow. I just came back inside after snapping pics since just after dark here in N Texas. We had a good show that started off behind the clouds but it was bright enough to shine through the clouds. Then a few hours later after the clouds cleared it was great. My camera battery quit on me. I used three cameras tonight and only really got usable photos from my iphone, whose camera I normally hate because it always seems to process images after I take them. Part of it is probably on me since I haven't taken the time to study how to optimize settings.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Anyway. Tomorrow should be another good day for this. Keep your eyes on the sky!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • joshvm · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Yes, you can use the NOAA forecast site which will show the "oval" and has 24 hour/30min predictions. Or Space Weather Live has some location forecasts. Generally if you don't live at a high latitude you need a very strong display to see anything. There's usually a bit of warning for storms like this, as various solar observation satellites can beam back images of the CME faster than the solar wind takes to get here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The keywords to use are “space weather forecast <country>”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • xinayder · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I'm on a trip visiting my friend in Central Finland and yesterday we had a 96% warning for aurora chance. Unfortunately, for us, the sky was quite cloudy and we didn't get a chance to see the lights. When we were heading back home I saw a faint line of blueish-purple in the sky, which seemed unusual, and told my friends "hey what if this is the aurora". I checked the photos from the other people that claimed they saw the lights and it checked out with what I've seen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • sgt101 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            How did this compare to the Carrington event?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • inamorty · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              You could read a newspaper from the light in the middle of the night during the Carrington event, so not comparable at all.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • beretguy · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              That’s what I want to know but everybody just talks about how pretty it is. I want to know if it was dangerous to our electronics, and if not then how close it came to being dangerous, you know, small things like that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • samus · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If it was dangerous, we would know by now. As it is, we are still able to use the internet. Major outages would be all over the news.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • anileated · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The current storm hit G5 (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g5-conditions-observed), it’s officially “off the charts” if it gets any stronger.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  By the time you cannot use Internet, it’s too late—and it won’t be all over the news because guess how we make/broadcast/receive them. Worst case you won’t even get a radio transmission through.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • keepamovin · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The EM disturbance to Earth (Dst) of Carrington was -1000, whereas this one was -250. But the flare that produced Carrington was estimated to be an X80, whereas our max was around an X3.98. I think that means that Carrington produced around 0.008 W/m^2 of X-ray flux whereas ours produced around 0.0004

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The non-linear effect (20x weaker flare only 4x less effect) is accounted for by how Earth's magnetic field has weakened in the ~165 years since Carrington.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • kzisme · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Super visible with the naked eye an hour and a half east of Denver. At some points the whole sky turned colors from green/pink/blue.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                https://imgur.com/a/8TJpI5i

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Some photos if anyone is interested

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • mkaszkowiak · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  This aurora was really powerful! I could see it with a naked eye from a town in central Poland, despite cloudy weather and light pollution. Feels great to finally see it in person

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • moooo99 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I live in a relatively big city where light pollution is obviously a huge thing. But the aurora was so strong that even we were able to make it out, although not as intensively beautiful as on all those webcam feeds

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • SenHeng · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Does anyone have a direct link to the time period when the aurora hits?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      All I see is a beautiful sunny day.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • DoingIsLearning · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I think for most folks in Europe it was between 23:00 and 03:00 CET yesterday.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Not sure what future forecasts are. I guess NOAA will probably have some prediction.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • djhworld · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I didn't see anything with the naked eye (UK), probably too much light pollution, but I took a photo of the sky with my phone and you could definitely see it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • Havoc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Same. Central London though so pretty hopeless on light pollution anyway

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • divbzero · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The sky has been lighting up in North America too. I’ve heard reports of the aurora from New England and, here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s currently visible by naked eye and striking in long exposure shots. I always thought I would have to visit Alaska or Scandinavia to see the northern lights, never thought I could catch a glimpse so close to home.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • jayknight · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It was visible to the naked eye in the city lights here around Memphis, TN. I've seen pictures from the gulf coast. That was so crazy!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • mjh2539 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  It was visible as far south as northern San Antonio last night.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • jamesbfb · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  And parts of Melbourne, Australia too! Never in my life have I seen this here. It’s a wonderful thing to see.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • sen · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Central Victoria here, absolutely insane view with greens and purples through the sky.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • nojvek · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Most of North US and Canada is also glowing pink today. Got many messages from friends in Washington and BC.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    What a wonderful sight.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • btbuildem · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Many of the photos here show it in such vivid colour, but for me the really breathtaking part was the scale and movement of the aurora.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Last night (here in Quebec) the entire sky was filled with colour. It's not as intense in person, but the slow shimmer of it is otherworldly. I was up on my roof for almost an hour, watching the blobs undulate in the sky. I think it made a bigger impression on me than the recent eclipse.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • BillionAI · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Girlfriend sent me pictures from Aarhus, DK. Was absolutely stunning!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • g7vrd · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          You can see the effects of the CME on the HF amateur radio bands.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This live map (https://g7vrd.co.uk/wspr/IO81) would usually be full of worldwide contacts being reported by WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter), but the solar flares have closed down the bands quite considerably.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The map is centred on Maidenhead grid square IO81, but you can change it to wherever you are: https://www.whatsmylocator.co.uk/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This will also cause problems with aircraft, as they use HF when they're out of sight of land.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • navane · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            why was all the news about eurovision songfestival and nothing about this

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • Ylpertnodi · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Israel?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • aussieguy1234 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I saw a full aurora in Melbourne, Australia.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Colours, ribbons, arcs and beams all visible to the naked eye and on camera.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Normally with aurouras, you only get to see a faint greyish glow on the horizon and it only looks good on camera. Not this time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • 77pt77 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Aurora australis are dimmer than aurora borealis.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • aussieguy1234 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Source? I believe it depends on what part of the magnetic field the CME hits. There are more people living closer to the north pole which might give that impression initially.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Here in Australia I leaned pretty quickly from other local Aurora chasers not to rely on Kp, which is relevant to North America only. Instead I use the global storm strength and the Hobart magnometer readings.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • pmarreck · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I have no idea what's going on because I have a toddler. Can someone catch me up here?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • _giorgio_ · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Did anyone screenshot it?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • atulatul · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Off topic maybe but Europe is so beautiful. I wish I get to travel across Europe with leisure.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • thunkshift1 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Why is it pink and not green

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • boringg · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Ive had a similar experience but looking at massive forest fires outside and noone in the cabin caring in the least bit. Its a strange thing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • Havoc · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I’ve got a flight tonight at 23:00 so hopefully can secure a window seat!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • rpmisms · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Is anyone else experiencing slow Internet during this? I'm not sure if it's related or confirmation bias, but it's been crawling since the storm hit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • spongebobism · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Is it the Aurora or is it the Eurovision finals? We may never know...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    • lytfyre · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Went about an hour north of Vancouver BC Canada to get away from bit city lights and watch.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      It was probably not the brightest small strands I've ever seen - if my memories of Northern Saskatchewan as a kid are still accurate - but I don't think I've seen the whole sky light up to such an extent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      here's a photo: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fu...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      magenta and green colours were clearly visible in person during the intense periods, although obviously not as bright or intense as long exposure photos. Solidly visible bands for at least the two hours I stayed out.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • GTP · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I missed it last night, but I heard it will repeat it tonight. I'm going to try to see it. It's unheard of at this latitute, currently I'm on an island in Tuscany, center of Italy.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Edit: I found online that the last one visible from Italy was in 2003, so not unheard of but still rare.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        • andrewstuart · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Clearly no-one read Day of the Triffids.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Don't look.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • Sparkyte · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Can it be seen with the naked eye? I didn't see anything last night.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • 082349872349872 · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Sorry all, had the following comment in the wrong thread yesterday:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              My unindicted co-conspirator is a much bigger fan of song contests than I am, but sometimes you just have to wonder at the production values: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUsNgu4GAI&t=550s

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              • globular-toast · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Went out into a meadow near town last night. Couldn't see a thing. Light pollution was probably too bad. But it was really funny to see a bunch of people milling about in the meadow at almost midnight. Many of them idiots walking around with phone torches destroying their and everyone else's night vision.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The shocking thing to me, though, is the number of satellites in the sky. This was a shit sky, way beyond what people would call "milky". Hardly any stars visible. But everywhere you looked there were satellites. I remember it being rare to see one only 15 years ago. Almost couldn't believe you could really see them back then. But now... Everywhere. I had no idea how congested it was getting up there. Wish I could leave Earth. But also glad we can't because we'd fuck that up too.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • vbilopav · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I thought it was because of Eurovision

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • djha-skin · 2 years ago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    We went out to Simpson Springs in Utah to see the borealis. There was a bit of a flare up. Like others have said it looked like streaky fog to the naked eye. My camera picked up something a little better. My wife's camera was a Samsung Galaxy Ultra S21 and she picked up gold it looks so good on her camera but anyway here's my shot.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/jytxIMvelaGs

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    You can see the lights of dugway Utah in the background