Aurora, Thrusday, 12th September, 2024

[OzEclipse]

Hi all,
We had nice aurora display last night observed naked eye and photographed here by me near Young, NSW. It punched through the light of the first quarter moon and danced with cloud cover.

There were two separate events, one was in progress at astronomical twilight 9:20 UT, and continued until about 11:03 UT. The other from 12:50UT to 14:00 UT.

I have been processing and analysing the 550 images to create this time lapse.

At the peak brightness of the first display 19:53-20:10 EST, the sheets and pillars were easily visible in muted but obvious pink/red colours to the naked eye. The display then dropped out of the intensity range of my photopic vision into my scotopic vision and was then visible as a pale colourless glow to the naked eye for perhaps another 15 mins before dropping lower.

It continued to be easily captured on my camera using a Pentax 28mm -105mm ED lens @ 28mm f3.5 and a Pentax K1 ISO 3200 8s exposures.

I received an update and alert about a second event after 10pm. That second weaker event started after 10pm and continued until midnight. I received a message from a friend who told me his granddaughter had a prediction for a third event at 4am, however I couldn't corroborate this. I dozed off in the lounge chair. When I woke up, the analogue wall clock was reading 2:20am. In my waking haze, I switched the clock hands and misread this as 4:10am. I went outside, the camera was still capturing but showing no activity. It had become cloudy so I went to bed. When I got into bed, I realised it was only 2:30am but I'd had enough for the night and went to sleep. I'm currently shifting my body clock to an early to bed very early to rise in readiness for comet Tsuchinshan's pre-dawn show over the next few weeks.

I captured 550 photos I needed to to process yesterday.

Here's one photo attached and the video on my Facebook feed linked below:
Camera:- Pentax K1 8s ISO 3200
Lens:- Pentax HD 28-105 ED DC WR 28mm @ f3.5
Location:- Young NSW
DATE-TIME:- 2024-09-12-19:59:35 UT.

This is the full video on my Facebook feed. The privacy is set to public so you should be able to look at it without being "my Facebook Friend." You might not even need to have a Facebook account - not sure because the video is on my account but maybe someone can post if they can view it without a Facebook account.

https://www.facebook.com/joe.cali.10/videos/374314232402175


cheers

Joe Cali

[Derek Klepp]

Thanks Joe. Hoping to view the comet up here as it rises out of the ocean let’s hope it materialises .
Derek

[foc]

Another great selected image to add to the posted collection. Well done on staying up and catching the 2nd flare up

[Leo.G]

That's another beautiful image Joe!
I never saw anything like that when I lived in Young.


Joe I don't have a face-Smear account because I believe social media is only a playground for clinical narcissists ( courtesy of Moira Rose-Schitt's creek).
I can clearly see the video without an account and again, it's stunning!

[OzEclipse]

Thanks Leo,

Glad you could see the video and thanks for your kind comments. We are going through a particularly active period of solar activity. It's also pertinent that Young and Lithgow's geomagnetic latitudes are about 60 south. The Earth's south magnetic pole(SMP) is located at 64 S, 137 E. That's only 30 degrees or 3400km almost due south from here. We are roughly the same distance from the SMP as Edmonton in Canada is from the NMP.

So we are a lot farther magnetic south than you might think. But these aurora can be very fickle. For example, the visible part of the display last Thursday was only about 20 mins long. The rest was only detectable in camera. So you have to monitor the alerts and react quickly. If it's clear here, that's a matter of throwing a camera onto a tripod on the front deck. But if you live in Lithgow or Bathurst, and you are not ready to go, it may take you 20 mins by the time you pack your camera, rug up and drive to a viewing location. Sydney is even more difficult. BTW, I refer to Young as, "the big smoke."

I saw just one in 1992 when living and working in Canberra. I didn't see any others.



Re:social media
Pssst, "Ice in Space," is social media too! Ssshhh! Don't tell Leo! :lol:
I don't think I am a clinical narcissist.

Facebook is whatever you want to make it. That video on Facebook has had 3000 plays in 2 days.

The Facebook algorithm pushes the sort of content at you that you choose to interact with. Mia culpa. I admit, I do post some light hearted anti-right wing political stuff but I don't look at and so I never see any racist, hate speech, Andrew Tate misogynist crap an so on, type content pushed in my direction.

Lot's of ads. The price you pay for a "free platform" but if you keep clicking the don't show me/i'm not interested in this, it remains at a bearable low level and I just skim over it anyway. You see most content from people or special interest groups that you engage with most actively. So for me that's friends, relatives and astronomy, photography, and aurora groups.

I find it's a great and very efficient way to keep in touch or reconnect with a swathe of relatives and friends scattered all around the world. I have even connected a whole group of 2nd cousins in Adelaide via Facebook. The connection was broken in my grandmothers generation when she died 30 years ago and the connection didn't jump to my mums generation with that branch of the family. I have been in touch and went to Adelaide and met them all last year.

So Facebook can be this evil thing, but only if you steer it there. I find the overwhelming majority of my interactions on the platform, very positive.

Cheers

Joe

[Leo.G]

I've just loved that saying since I heard it on the show. I don't like social media myself, probably too many skeletons in my closet but I know a lot of people who keep in touch with their family and friends.
Like anything, it boils down to how you use it and what you choose to share.

[gregbradley]

Great catch Joe.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Farr-Oout !!!