Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

[powerslave]

I've never seen the Northern Lights and apparently on certain days during the winter they can be observed from Calgary, or just outside of the city.

Does anyone know when these occur? Any way to check a website for these? The Weather Network doesn't have any information on this.

[Iqoair]

Missed out big time about a month ago. There was a wicked display of northern lights. Wish I had a decent camera at the time. Amazing.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by powerslave
I've never seen the Northern Lights and apparently on certain days during the winter they can be observed from Calgary, or just outside of the city.

Does anyone know when these occur? Any way to check a website for these? The Weather Network doesn't have any information on this.

They can appear anytime of the year, but they are more obvious during the winters because our skies get so much darker. When they occur depends on solar activity.

Keep your eyes on http://www.spaceweather.com for announcements on when they are active.

[adam c]

ive seen them from inside the city... even tho all you could really see was green its amazing
btw. this was in midnapore

[Ekliptix]

yup
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/Ekliptix/NL5.jpg

[Weapon_R]

We get some amazing northern lights each year. Keep an eye out this winter, you can't miss em

[D'z Nutz]

I took these last year.

http://www.typicalfish.com/blog//images/aurora0002.jpg

http://www.typicalfish.com/blog//images/aurora0003.jpg

My god, these are so bad! Hahahaha!! :rofl:

[djayz]

^
what?!

those pictures are awesome i remember last year when you took those haha i had one as my wallpaper for a while

[DJ Lazy]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz
I took these last year.

My god, these are so bad! Hahahaha!! :rofl:

Yea... Ekliptix has you beat man.. ;) .... :rofl:

[Beanie_baby]

anyone know what northern lights are?? ;)

Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second.

But even with such speeds (over a million kilometer per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to three days to reach our planet. When they are closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles; the geomagnetic south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.


On their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles.

When the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky.

[msommers]

Bill Nye FTW! Cool info though, I honestly had no idea!

[Ajay]

I grew up in Northern Alberta in a very small town (High Level).

The Northern Lights that you see here while quite nice are NOTHING compared to what is seen up there. Only thing I miss about living 12 hours north of Calgary....absolutely beautiful show up there for Northern Lights.

[Proboscis]

did anyone see that light show at 2:46 am? looked like a comet blew up. I seen it driving up sarcee

[Khyron]

I used to see them all the time in and around Edworthy park, and west, but now there's so much more buildings, not as often.

Khyron

[lilmira]

I've only seen it once while driving in the NE. I wasn't sure what it was for a few seconds. It was beautiful.
The light from the city may not work very well to any kind of sky watching.
Do they occur more often in certain direction or mostly random?

[5.0]

Here is a picture from a camp I worked at up north...

[Black Dragon]

I live in evergreen and i see the lights all the time. ive seen ones this summer that were spectacular

[allsr20edup]

you can see them on macknight at the airport view stop.

[Proboscis]

i was lookin east. shit blew up! not the northern lights. maybe i set off a roman candle at edworthy. oh well. great time to set off shit in Brickburn

[snade831]

I live in the southeast and have seen them several times during the winter. Pretty neat

[snowboard]

i see them so much driving home on the highway..

[Neil4Speed]

Apparently there are some out right now! I may go for a late night drive and check it out

[powerslave]

Bump! Did anyone see the aurora last night? Finally saw it- the most amazing fact is I saw them from in front of my house in Midnapore, didn't even have to leave the city!
Also, it wasn't just a faint glow, it was pretty noticable with lots of activity, really awesome.

[tomt64]

Originally posted by powerslave
Bump! Did anyone see the aurora last night? Finally saw it- the most amazing fact is I saw them from in front of my house in Midnapore, didn't even have to leave the city!
Also, it wasn't just a faint glow, it was pretty noticable with lots of activity, really awesome.

I popped out of the city limits westbound yesterday. On the way back around 11ish, was in full view... best I have ever seen. :)

[lilmira]

Yep, got the aurora alert around 11. Peeked from my windows, didn't notice it right away, thought it was a band of cloud especially with all the light pollution around my house but the greenish hue looked suspicious. Grabbed my camera, took a few pics, the whole sky was green. :eek:

Should have driven out to the country but my house was warm. :)

http://www.aurorawatch.ca/images/Plots/AuroraWatch20131001.png

[CapnCrunch]

This thread needs....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJZhgmj-rLM

[powerslave]

Originally posted by lilmira

http://www.aurorawatch.ca/images/Plots/AuroraWatch20131001.png

Was this taken from a website? I have a few sites that monitor aurora activity, but I've never seen this one.

[lilmira]

I grabbed it from Aurora Watch (http://www.aurorawatch.ca/) from the U of A. I've signed up for their email alert.

[Kijho]

http://www.aurorawatch.ca/includes/Today.png

66% chance just got the email to my phone 8:10PM Oct 8th.

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by lilmira
I grabbed it from Aurora Watch (http://www.aurorawatch.ca/) from the U of A. I've signed up for their email alert.

Thanks

[roll_over]

Is this why air traffic is flying in an unusual direction?

[jonsey737]

Originally posted by roll_over
Is this why air traffic is flying in an unusual direction?

The Aurora has no impact on air traffic... well unless there was a big coronal mass ejection or something.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by roll_over
Is this why air traffic is flying in an unusual direction?

They aren't :dunno:

Did see more than the usual amount of go arounds tonight though.

[roll_over]

I just noticed a lot flying east to west tonight or as tik tok said flying around

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by lilmira
I grabbed it from Aurora Watch (http://www.aurorawatch.ca/) from the U of A. I've signed up for their email alert.

Thanks for posting this!

[Kijho]

6:00am you can still faintly see it looking north.

Woke up at around 4:30am and looked out the window saw the faint outline but wasn't sure, so I grabbed the camera, 2 minute exposure ...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3799/10168405614_ae68780429_c.jpg


:zzz:

[clem24]

Originally posted by roll_over
I just noticed a lot flying east to west tonight or as tik tok said flying around

I believe plane takeoffs and landings are dictated by wind; you want to land and take off into headwind. So that'll dictate which runway and which direction planes will take off and land.

[Kijho]

Right now 12am :zzz:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5498/10754080285_aa525ab5ea_c.jpg

If you're interested...
http://www.aurorawatch.ca/includes/Today.png

[a61z]

saw them tonight around 3am just by chance.
super bright. pretty spectacular.

[msommers]

John Marriott's gorgeous picture from last night:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1452115_10151751323276778_918223481_n.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/JohnEMarriottPhotography

Noel Rogers of Bow Valley Photography has some amazing stuff as well.

https://www.facebook.com/BowValleyPhotography

[revelations]

We had a REALLY strong event last month. I remember seeing them move clearly in my backyard in Calgary.

[Kijho]

12:10am November 11, 2013 early this morning.. Very bright, didn't even have to leave the warmth of my home :D

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3756/10802487976_7dd3851405_c.jpg

[lilmira]

Nice! I got the alert but I was sleeping like a baby to notice until this morning. Didn't think the sky was clear enough last night.

[diamondedge]

Originally posted by lilmira
Nice! I got the alert but I was sleeping like a baby to notice until this morning. Didn't think the sky was clear enough last night.

Yeah, it was overcast when I fell asleep, like an hour before the email. Damnit.

Next time...

[jsn]

Where do you get the notice from?

[diamondedge]

Originally posted by jsn
Where do you get the notice from?

I signed up at http://www.aurorawatch.ca/

[slick2404]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Solar+flare+expected+bring+aurora+south+Calgary+Thursday/9367999/story.html


According to the University of Alaska’s aurora forecast, Tuesday’s solar event will create highly active, level five northern lights on Thursday and Friday. If skies are clear, Whitehorse, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and the Gaspé Peninsula may be able to glance the lights directly overhead

Hopefully we'll be able to see it.

[lilmira]

http://www.auroraforecast.com/

Looks active today and tomorrow, hope we get some clear sky at night.

[Kijho]

Nice!! Glad to see, I'll stay up a bit to wait for the alert tonight hopefully :D

[legendboy]

I saw this on an oasis documentary about all the effects the earths tilt causes

Aurora Borealis from space! Blew my mind
You really get a sense the level of protection the earths magnetic field gives us from solar wind

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/015/639/i02/northern-lights-astronauts-space-station.png

[revelations]

Originally posted by slick2404
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Solar+flare+expected+bring+aurora+south+Calgary+Thursday/9367999/story.html



Hopefully we'll be able to see it.

L7+ you can see them from your backyard in the city .... :thumbsup:

(rest of the time, they are hard to make out)

[BerserkerCatSplat]

C'mon, clear skies!

[JordanEG6]

Tomorrow would be perfect. I'm in the deep south, anyone know a good place to catch it?

[msommers]

This isn't their usual format but it appears their servers couldn't handle the traffic!

http://auroraforecast.gi.alaska.edu/

[revelations]

Yea I wouldnt bother in/around the city until the index hits 7 or greater - weve tried several times in the past 6 months when it was <7 and were disappointed.

We went to elbow falls once, and east of Airdrie another time without much luck (camera caught some though).

Also the peak usually happens from 1200 - 2am .. :(

[phreezee]

How the heck did we go this far into a thread about aurora borealis without this:

S-yTpaESzkU

[Kijho]

Skys were clear for a while last night, but nothin! :dunno:

[revelations]

Index is >8 right now, Aurora potentially visible down into Montana in a few hours when the peak hits.

[msommers]

Holy crap! 8!!!!!!???!

[revelations]

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/

[revelations]

my phone was set to alert me above 8 - i got one about 1/2hr ago .... though looking at other sites they are showing 6

[msommers]

That's still very strong. Maybe I will drive out to the mountains tonight after all

[Darkane]

Pretty crazy at site here in mcmurray. Was strongest around 9pm looked like

[AndyL]

http://www.aurorawatch.ca/images/Plots/AuroraWatch20140218.png

Yup 9pm'ish spike

[Kijho]

Was so strong last night but I got nothin.. took a couple shots, but there was clouds around 10pm, and then 4am when I got up same thing :(

[revelations]

The damn lights were visible from my bedroom window while looking up past the street light.

[lilmira]

Got the alert last night, looked out the window, nothing, slept like a baby after. :)

[msommers]

Pretty damn awesome last night! Spotty cloud cover in some areas took away from it but I've never seen them so active and ribbon-like. You could even see them faintly in photo from Riverfront Park/Ramsay looking north!

[diamondedge]

Originally posted by diamondedge


Yeah, it was overcast when I fell asleep, like an hour before the email. Damnit.

Next time...

Fuck I did it again. Feel asleep and the phone was on silent.

[Kijho]

Anyone have pics?!

[Viper55555]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/viper55555/JH5D5136-3_zps72fb6d46.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/viper55555/media/JH5D5136-3_zps72fb6d46.jpg.html)

[diamondedge]

Buddy saw them from Sage Hill around 9:45pm - I finally saw them!!
Active for the next 6 hours!

http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/forecast-prevision/short-court/sfst-2-eng.php

[Kijho]

Somehow, for some reason - I just woke 12am and they're visible from the warmth of my bed :)

[Kijho]

Woke up around midnight (per my above post) and the sky was clear, but the aurora wasn't too too bright. Picked up on camera well though.
Then again at 4am when I got up I shot these. Some people tell me they've never once seen the northern lights. I think this is my 7th time now!

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2828/12654367255_0bc9e18316_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spencerh6/12654367255/)
IMG_9935sh (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spencerh6/12654367255/) by Shpixx (http://www.flickr.com/people/spencerh6/), on Flickr

https://s3.yimg.com/so/7358/12654861544_68a11d352b_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spencerh6/12654861544/)
IMG_9931sh (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spencerh6/12654861544/) by Shpixx (http://www.flickr.com/people/spencerh6/), on Flickr

[zipdoa]

Awesome shots. I was up at 5am but it was too cloudy to see anything

[firebane]

Originally posted by zipdoa
Awesome shots. I was up at 5am but it was too cloudy to see anything

Around 5am was when clouds started to roll in. I was out walking between 4:30 to 5am and you could still see them but just barely by 5am

[msommers]

I drove out to Yamnuska the previous night and really wish I had a better camera, the shots turned out very noisy. Still, pretty awesome light show!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t31/1008710_10100111299777357_247601427_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t31/1965437_10100111299772367_815573783_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t31/1939559_10100111299767377_1850532488_o.jpg

[lilmira]

There was a big solar flare yesterday, keep your eyes peeled at night.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/solar-flare-could-prompt-brilliant-northern-lights-display-1.2762361

[Kijho]

Forgot about that solar flare yesterday, GF called just now reminding me and realized my camera battery was dead. Charging it up with high hopes for this evening :)

And the tweet just came out from AuroraWatch..

[Maxx Mazda]

Just landed in Winnipeg. Pics didn't turn out really, but from 30,000' they were incredible. We shut the cockpit lights off and they were so bright they still up the inside. Very cool. Can't wait till tomorrow!

I see them all the time but absolutely never get tired of looking t them. Just incredible.

[JordanEG6]

It's always cloudy every time I go. Hopefully it's clear tonight, but the forecast calls for clouds with some clear breaks. Not sure if it will be worth it to be out.

[msommers]

Went out to the mountains last night and I didn't see much of anything at all. Normally when there is some activity, the camera can at least pick up the green in the atmosphere you can't see with your naked eye, but all I got was a little spot not even worth caring about. At least it was really clear last night and got some night photography done. Started heading back around 12:30am with no activity :(.

Hoping tonight it picks up as we talked about going out to the hoodoos. Praying for clear skies like last night!

[Kijho]

Forecast says clouds but I'm really hoping it'll be clear - would love to make a longer drive out further out of the city to see the sky.

[msommers]

Anyone see anything?

I took a gamble and hoped the clouds would clear a bit by ~1am upon arrival but it was total shit again last night. Not even a hint of green in the atmosphere either.

[lilmira]

Nothing, all clouds. :(

[KrisYYC]

Anybody know of a good spot outside of the city to view it or just general stargazing?


A spot where some farmer isn't going to come out with shotgun would be preferable :D

[Kijho]

Woke at 2am looked outside saw nothing so tried to shoot a photo and it picked up nothing at all.

Might head out tonight as the sky is crystal clear. If nothing, at-least some nice stars perhaps.

[xnvy]

Bump. My friend said there's chance they might be visible tonight but she has no idea at what time to go. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by xnvy
Bump. My friend said there's chance they might be visible tonight but she has no idea at what time to go. Anyone have any suggestions?

There's no alerts for tonight. There was last night.

[zieg]

Think I caught just a bit of it from allen bill

http://i.imgur.com/cz5iUOs.jpg

[xnvy]

Dammit. Hopefully the forecast changes throughout the day :D

[Kijho]

Super faint yellow alert last night, not enough to even get out of bed for haha..

[Kijho]

Big red alert tonight!! Huge Aurora to the north right now (11:46pm) !! So incredibly vibrant ..
Gonna sit here inside for a while too lazy to go out .. I always find it so hard to "compose" the aurora shots out in the middle of nowhere in pitch black impossible to see.. Also worried of some crazy pack of coyotes or some shit attacking me if I'd be alone out there hahaha..

Anyways go look guys hope some get good shots!! I have a few already will post tomorrow!!

[My_name_is_Rob]

I got to see them while driving to Red Deer. I just assumed the moon was shining off the clouds at first, but it did look pretty cool. Quite a few people were actually pulled over to watch them even.

[Team_Mclaren]

shit i wished i saw this post eariler...

[msommers]

Very beautiful aurora tonight. Did a lot of driving all around the mountains. Even on the way back home I stopped at a couple spots and could still see them in the middle of the city.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by msommers
Very beautiful aurora tonight. Did a lot of driving all around the mountains. Even on the way back home I stopped at a couple spots and could still see them in the middle of the city.

Where you already out in the mountains? Or did you head out when you heard about them?

[msommers]

I was actually driving back from Banff and saw them really bright just coming back into the Foothills. Belined home to get my camera gear and went back out, starting at that church west of Cochrane. Get there and the parking lot is full! :rofl:

[Thales of Miletus]

The northern lights are supposed to be spectacular tonight.

Solar Activity is as high as a G4 rating.


http://globalnews.ca/news/1886876/northern-lights-kick-off-st-patricks-day-festivities/

[lilmira]

the cloud coverage is spectacular right now