What Date did this Aurora Australis happen

[cwjames]

Hi All,

Not so long ago I was scanning one of my print film negative strips when I came across this picture I had taken years before but never seen of a Aurora Australis.

Based on other photos on the negative strip and my memory, I estimate this photo was taken in the early 80's. I remember taking the photo but not the date. Rosalie and I were travelling home in a northerly direction from a dance at Woodanilling with this view in the rear of the car. When we arrived home I set up the camera on a tripod and took this image at approx 1am. My curiosity then started to get the better of me as I tried to narrow down the actual date.

Here are the known facts.


Location where photo was taken: Wagin 33 Degrees 18 Min 26.95 South 117 Degrees 20 Min 37.1 East

Time: Between midnight and 1 am (Also the most likely time of viewing an Aurora)

Date: Based on the star positions in the photo and the approx time, it confirms the photo was taken between February and March.

Day: Saturday Night - Sunday morning.

Direction: Camera was pointed toward the southern horizon. (The power line in the image runs due south)


I cannot think of any scientific way of narrowing down the actual year based on the data in the image. If known Aurora sightings were recorded somewhere, I could check for sightings in Feb / March in the early 80's. The last Solar maxim was in 2001 and going back two solar sunspot cycles put a solar max at 2001 - 11 = 1990 - 11 = 1979. Now a solar flare can occur at any time, however the chances of one occurring close to the Solar Maximum are greater so the year being in the early 80's seem to be good.

Check out the picture at the url below and see if you agree with my findings so far. Give the image some time as it's an animated gif file which shows which stars I have identified to make my conclusions, you may disagree with me.


http://www.cwjames.info/astro/galler...ld-003-thm.gif

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/widefield/widefield-003.php


If you can confirm the actual date, or narrow it down, please let me know !

I will try doing a search on the internet to find if any recordings of Aurora siteings have been made in the early 80's.

Thanks
Chris

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Chris, think i found it feb 18 1983

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/fac...ml/au18283.htm

[cwjames]

Hi Kearn,

It looks very much like the same Aurora.

I checked the date, 18/02/1983 is a Friday Night Saturday morning so it still fits into my memory of the night.

Thanks for the reply and pointing me to this post.

Chris

[fringe_dweller]

most elevated activity associated with solar maximums, happens at the peak and on the down slope from peak for a few years, about 3 years usually, not a lot of build up, there is some for sure, but nothing like the other side. so that fits too

the 2001 max was a tiddler compared to many others prior, i get into it and its the weakest one since the early 20th century lol I am jealous of the early '80s solar cycle 21 'best of' observers, you guys saw a ripper max for sure thanks for sharing

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by cwjames

Hi Kearn,

It looks very much like the same Aurora.

I checked the date, 18/02/1983 is a Friday Night Saturday morning so it still fits into my memory of the night.

Thanks for the reply and pointing me to this post.

Chris

it could of been the sat/sun still?, ... storms can go from 3 hours to sometimes 3 days, altho rarely do they do that, (also albiet in cyclic lulls and peaks over 2 or 3 days, depends on intensity of course)

[cwjames]

Hi Kearn,

No Friday / Saturday still fits my window as my wife (Rosalie) reckons we where not coming back from a dance but from going out for a evening meal, chinese, at katanning. So it may well have been Friday/Saturday.

I was really pleased and supprised when scanning that negative turned up this photo. I had never seen it before as the people processing it never printed it as the exposure was well down.

Thanks Again

[fringe_dweller]

Chris, what also might confirm the day, was what the moon was doing, Maurice says that viewing it at around 8:30 - 9:00 PM

"The biggest problem in observing this display was the waning gibbous moon, low in the eastern sky. As a result of this, I ceased watching the aurora after about an hour.'

the moon was actually waxing and 5.13 days old, edit: ( and he says it was the eastern sky - hang on?) and set around 11 pm EDIT: (if it was daylight savings time? 10PM otherwise sorry!), so if no moon was present when you saw the show, at midnight and after, that narrows it down a bit more possibly

i know what you mean by developers not bothering to print dark astro shots LOL it happened to us a few times, but when we started telling them to expect that, and writing it all over the container! they were fine

[Outbackmanyep]

1983.....the year we won the America's Cup......long live Australia II!

[fringe_dweller]

I hope you dont mind if i waffle on a bit Chris (and the other Chris )
but I love the aurora/light shows these days,.. when i worked in the UK for a few years around 17 years ago now, I had a boss of the brickie gang, who had worked in WA in very early '80s, who was fond of aussies, and he used to say 'so have you seen the southern lights?' with some intensity, quite often when he saw me around the job, while he was sneaking a breakfast beer and a joint and hiding out. I would say no, as usual, and then he would go into great detail about the time he was in the WA outback in the middle of no-where, on a brickie gang, sometime in the early '80s, I believe he was well north even? cant be totally sure.
and they had knocked off, and were sitting around a campfire drinking beer, and the sky was that good as you get out there type of moonless sky i imagine, where the stars meet up to form a brilliant semi-blinding white sheet, which in itself was probably amazing, but a mighty big solar storm hit, and he said they were all just speechless watching the results, pretty much filled the entire sky from description. maintained it was best thing he had ever seen, period! he would of been maybe 40 - 50 when i knew him.

weird thing is he lived so close to the arctic circle in england, but then the sky is so often cloudy they miss a few, i never saw one there? even tho I was living in scotland for a year for a part of it!? and it was a solar max, not to mention i lived in tassie briefly for 4 years as a youngster, 8-12, and did an early morning paper run, and rowing on the river in the dark, never saw a thing, cept that was during the minimum. altho i might have and not realised, never had anyone say oh look theres an aurora lol, and the school teachers taught it was sunlioght reflecting of anarctica i'm reliably told, and as i remember it to