Aurora alert. - Page 2

ving (David) · #21 27-05-2005, 03:24 PM

going to souther highlands on saturday... i'll keep an eye out

fringe_dweller · #22 27-05-2005, 03:54 PM

Another good one is Graham Palmer of NZ's private email alert service - you can email Graham at gramy(at)globe(dot)net(dot)nz and he will put you on the list - also http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southern-aurora/ is a great network too.
Cheers
Fringey

fringe_dweller · #23 27-05-2005, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ballaratdragons
I can't understand those graphs.

In normal mans talk, where should we look? South? Straight up?

Ken,
A few years ago I got some excellent guidance on aurora chasing/observing from a Kiwi aurora veteran, Ian Cooper (as have many people).
I had been chasing them for a few years already at the time - but hadnt clicked to a few important indicators.
My favourite indictator (presuming you have seen high alerts and basic indicators saying that aurora's are possible at your latitude and you want to go further with it that is) is to look out for the fast to press visual reports (and images thesedays) from NZ on STD http://www.spacew.com/ (scroll down to bottom of page) - in particular reports from the north island, as the lower part of the North Island is on roughly the same geomagnetic latitudes as southern mainland Australia (Adelaide) . You may need an atlas to achieve this for locations - thats what I do.
STD is a pig of a site to download using dial-up as everyone knows - but its the bees knees unfortunately. Seeing that Kiwi's see nightfall around 4 hours before we do - NZer's can act as, luckily by coincidence and chance, an early warning system for keen Aussies.
Not that that garauntees that you will see something at all - i find this type of observing the hardest - its not like a galaxy or object that you can just slew to any old time and see it. It reminds me a lot of fishing - sometimes the only bites you get are from mozzies - but now and then when everything aligns - you catch that monster and that makes all the disappointing trips worthwhile.
Expect it to be a waste of time or a very mild show - at least half the time - or maybe even 60% to 70% of the time, and you will enjoy it when it does happen.
It takes quite a while to get the hang of aurora chasing - it took me about three years just to get mildly good at it!! (and that was with the benefit of learning during a solar max)
Cheers
Fringey

Vermin (Tom) · #24 27-05-2005, 06:23 PM

The POES plots are a prediction of auroral activity based on proton flux (lots of red = good chance).

If the KP index gets above 5 there's a lot of magnetic fluctuation going on, which is an indicator of auroral activity.

Also, when you join the yahoo group shown in Fringey's post above you'll get a paper explaining the relevance of the inter planetary magnetic field graph.

The source for each of the graphs usually has an explanation on their web pages, just takes a bit of surfing and reading.

In layman's terms look towards the poles (south for most of us), midnight is supposed to be the best time, but I have seen storms peak earlier, just depends when the CME (coronal mass ejection) arrives. Even when I saw one peak at 9pm, there was still a second brightening around midnight.

fringe_dweller · #25 27-05-2005, 06:31 PM

Barring all that you can just jump onto a plane and go to southernmost NZ at the right times (were they are considered a nuisance to observing probably!! LOL) - or alaska/finland/iceland - with volcanoes to boot :-)))) during their winter seasons! and see em any old time.
Cheers
fringey

Vermin (Tom) · #26 27-05-2005, 06:37 PM

Yep, I've heard a Finlander complain about the midnight sun in summer and auroral sky glow in winter when trying to chase down faint fuzzies.

fringe_dweller · #27 27-05-2005, 06:41 PM

sorry - multiple posts!! - another excellent help is if you have an aurora buddy who lives in the country (if your in the city) and you can ring them and ask them to have a look on your behalf - or maybe they are already looking.- and tell you if its even worth trying - i have one or two of those - but their not always mega reliable heheh -- but sometimes its a big help.
Fringey

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #28 27-05-2005, 08:57 PM

I think the atmosphere, smog or whatever is changing too. I can remember seeing Auroras as a kid in the suburbs of Sydney around 9pm regularly. (at least three times a year) There wasn't a lot of light pollution back then (1960's and 70's) but that is a fair way north.

I have not seen any since my childhood in Sydney! and I live in a very dark place and watch the sky more often.

fringe_dweller · #29 28-05-2005, 04:40 PM

You must of been unlucky not to see any activity from a dark sky location in Victoria Ken!
I have been resisting annoying the hell out of the younger members of IiS with another groanworthy "remember the good old days" from me - but i have to say the obvious - I remember when the streetlights went off 11PM and then 1 am later on - even if I was only a kid - and they werent very bright anyway when they were on, those gas lamps - hehee no i mean early versions of streetlights

apparently you use to be able to discover comets visually from your backyard!!

I have posted a map of the comparison of the position geomagnetic pole as compared to the earths spinning axis pole. I had a hell of a time finding a good geomagnetic grid map overlayed with the normal latt long, so i am using one that Ian sent to me a while ago. There used to be a few more around on the net but they have dissappeared? they used to be one that you entered your normal co-ordinates in and you got your geomagnetic co-ordinates, but i cant find it now. the magnetic pole of course moves around very slowly over time - this present era sees Oz and NZ in prime position (for populated areas) for the southern lights. This map is for 1995 - but i dont think it has moved a lot since then? As you can see Melboune is at 50º south!! in regards to magnetic pole. So we arent as far north as we think! The solar max in the 60's was apparently a big active one - this last one was the mildest one for a while i think?.
Cheers
Fringey

Vermin (Tom) · #30 31-05-2005, 02:42 AM

The clouds parted just enough to give me a tantalising glimpse of the aurora tonight.

All I got to see was the top of the activity, which was better than nothing as it was raining with 100% cloud cover earlier. It stayed clear overhead for about 30min from 0:30 to 01:00.

Lots of movement/pulsating sheets and rays, but quite faint as I was only seeing the top of the activity due to low lying cloud on the horizon.

Got a few pics, nothing great though:

http://www.webclot.com/photos/Aurora...005/index.html

Vermin (Tom) · #31 31-05-2005, 09:50 AM

Yuck! I have got to get a new monitor at home. The phosphor on the one I used to adjust the levels of last nights photos has faded (from sun exposure), and looking at the pics on my monitor at work shows this badly. I'll have a go at reprocessing the images sometime in the next few days, but will keep the existing filenames and directory structure.

fringe_dweller · #32 31-05-2005, 05:31 PM

Nice one Tom - I was imagining I was there watching them while viewing your great pics - as close i can get at the mo - thanx for sharing them again

Cheers
Fringey