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Observation Details
Hi Colin,
good to see that you have 'the bug!' I've seen over fifty displays from my location over the past 35 years. Most of those have been during the more active Solar Sunspot Cycles (SSC's) in that period, and have included some Great Auroral Storms that have covered more than half of my sky!
The key elements that are needed for a useful aurora observation are in order; The name of your location, the geographic coordinates (Bob Evans of the Aurora & Solar Section will convert these into geo-mag coordinates later). The time from start to finish, and for any significant outbursts. The time in U.T. is preferred and is far more useful than local times. Finally any comments regarding brightness, colour and structure will be of great use. Colour photographs on their own aren't as helpful when trying to compare one display with those of the past. Film & digital cameras pick up colour that the eye doesn't, so the eyeball impression is vital. I suppose the easiest way to get times these days is from the photo details in the digital image.
With this SSC being so poor compared to the last 3 then my advice to any would be aurorae observer/photographer is to take any opportunity that arises as they will be few and far between. We may only have another year or so at best from our Geo Mag latitude Colin. Those further south will fair somewhat better.
Cheers,
Ian
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