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Biggest Solar Storm in a couple decades tonight

 
 
 
Back in the early 90s I was living n a small town in a North Idaho mountain pass. No light pollution.

I wailed outside on a clear night and there it was. It puzzled me for a bit because I had not heard of any prediction.
 
Seen them pulling into Anchorage back in '87. I was on the bridge watch rotation midnight to 0600. After the most brutal transit through the inlet (45° rolls), in the wee hours of the morning the sea calmed, the sky cleared and we were treated to a light show.
 
I only have broadcast TV. It looked like it was interfering with TV.
 
This was taken from rural northeastern Alabama Friday night. A little after 9 central. I had heard that we might see some Aurora, but I was skeptical they would ever get this far south. I had planned on shooting M101 and was finishing up my alignment and looked up at the North Star, and holy fuck, the daggum sky was on fire! It was amazing. I started taking iPhone shots quickly and calling and texting my astronomy buddies. For the next hour and a half, I was just twirling around the field with my head tilted back in utter amazement. I had never seen anything like this before. Later I learned the red means that they are very high excited Oxygen atoms, 150 miles up. Green is lower. The show was spectacular with rippling red and yellow curtains. It eventually faded to a faint red glow all across the sky. No astrophotography for me!

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Here’s another shot of the constellation Leo. At the time, Leo was 70 degrees above the southern horizon, or 110 above the northern. From the chart above, this means that it was a tremendous storm. Those particles are 150 miles up. And it should be visible another 20 degrees south of me or 15 degrees north! It was visible in the keys! A friend in Panama City, Florida could see it but said it was faint.

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More storms potentially tonight. Bad weather here in Alabama means I will miss them. But if you live up north and have clear skies go and see them. Amazing!!
 
Storm fluttered away. My sister from Northern MN sent pics from her phone. It was insanely good up there.
 
Apparently the section of the Sun that was producing these CME’s has rotated away from earth. But it is still quite active. Maybe it will come around in a few days. The moon though won’t be perfect for it.
 
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