Northern Lights

**Jimaz** · August-03-10, 06:02 PM

I just heard a report that northern lights might be visible from Michigan over the next 48 hours.

I'll have my BIG binoculars out there just in case.

**gazhekwe** · August-03-10, 06:23 PM

The sky is clear as a bell, too. I will be out looking!

**jcole** · August-03-10, 06:40 PM

Did it indicate any particular time of night that would be most likely?

**Gannon** · August-03-10, 06:48 PM

Bummer, hopefully they will be visible from San Diego as well.

I just camped across the country...from SW Indiana to Dodge City to Taos to Sedona...and while the sky was beautiful every night [[we chased away huge thunderstorms each night, each night it was raining as we set up the tents but clear thereafter) there were no extraordinary sights.

Other than the three meteors last night.

At least one we think might've been more...it had at least five vehicles in chase at first...according to my friend who caught the beginning...but by the time I saw the grouping, it was only two with a weird 'meteor' shooting through the middle of them. As if something made a jump to light speed.

Let's hope San Diego's street lights don't pollute so much...

**Jimaz** · August-03-10, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

Did it indicate any particular time of night that would be most likely?

No, the time of such a thing would be unpredictable.

Also, the annual Perseid meteor shower is due on Aug. 12. This is the largest annual shower on average. Best viewing is after 11 p.m. or pre-dawn. Some two dozen meteors are expected to streak across the sky every hour although historically there's a lot of variance in that number. The meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Perseus.

**MikeM** · August-03-10, 07:56 PM

Name of forecaster: Charles Deehr

Time of prediction: 8/2/2010 2:01:00 PM*

Forecast:Auroral activity will be active. Weather permitting, active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Inuvik, Yellowknife, Rankin and Igaluit to Juneau, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Sept-Iles, and visible low on the horizon from Vancouver, Great Falls, Pierre, Madison, Lansing, Ottawa, Portland and St. Johns.

http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/

**Ray1936** · August-03-10, 07:15 PM

Nevada skies are clear, as always, but I fear we're far too south to see the show. Nonetheless, we shall give a few looks after dark tonite and tomorrow night. Good luck, all.

**Johnnny5** · August-03-10, 07:40 PM

I've seen them several times in the Thumb and in the U.P, but I highly doubt they'll be visible around the lights of the Detroit Metro area.

**Bigb23** · August-04-10, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by Johnnny5

I've seen them several times in the Thumb and in the U.P, but I highly doubt they'll be visible around the lights of the Detroit Metro area.

About 25 years ago, I just got home from work about 1 AM in the morning around the intersection of Hall Rd and Gratiot. I looked up and was suprised to see a spectacular, but somewhat dim Northern light show. I'm sure that maybe 25 miles north it was really something.

**jcole** · August-04-10, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Bigb23

About 25 years ago, I just got home from work about 1 AM in the morning around the intersection of Hall Rd and Gratiot. I looked up and was suprised to see a spectacular, but somewhat dim Northern light show. I'm sure that maybe 25 miles north it was really something.

I think I also saw that show. The green lights just danced across the sky

**yupislyr** · August-04-10, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Johnnny5

I've seen them several times in the Thumb and in the U.P, but I highly doubt they'll be visible around the lights of the Detroit Metro area.

It's difficult, but not impossible. It depends on the strength of the storm that causes them.

Just last night my friend saw them from her home in Wixom, although there really wasn't much to be seen down here last night. If you've seen them before, you didn't miss much. You needed to be farther north to see a decent to good show last night.

I've personally seen them in Wixom on 3 or 4 occasions. I have pictures from one of them: http://yupislyr.com/aurora/aurora5.html

I've seen them through the bright lights of downtown Windsor. That was quite a powerful show though. Only a small area overhead was actually visible from deep inside the city. Once you got outside of the city lights though, almost the whole sky was full of them.

Tonight's possible show is forecast to be better than last night's.

**gazhekwe** · August-03-10, 08:04 PM

I heard it would be most likely to come on in the early hours of 8-4, or after midnight tonight, I guess.

**Jimaz** · August-03-10, 08:24 PM

Oh, and as a preemptive disclaimer, the northern lights are in no way guaranteed to appear in Michigan. It's more like if you're eager to see them, now would be a good time to take the risk or if you're out there anyway it's worth glancing to the north.

Meteor showers are best viewed in the pre-dawn hours because at that time the earth's atmosphere is spinning into the direction of its travel. The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus because that's the direction earth is moving as it flies through the debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids can appear over several days around August 9 through 14.

**qweek** · August-03-10, 09:49 PM

Watching the sky, tonight is the night. Haven't posted in awhile, hope everyone is having a great summer. It has been superb for skinny dippin! Jimaz, I'm estimating the arrival at 1 a.m. ish. Happy sky watching!

**qweek** · August-03-10, 09:53 PM

Waiting for the second wave...

http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simula...ime/index.html

Ravine · August-03-10, 10:35 PM

You have returned!!

As always, your Qweekness is my weakness...

**qweek** · August-03-10, 11:05 PM

Hi Ravine, sweet thing!

**qweek** · August-03-10, 11:19 PM

I hope we see the auroras tonight, it looks promising. Keep watching, it's worth it.

**qweek** · August-04-10, 12:00 AM

Poke around here to get an idea of what is so close. Keep watching, listen to the many cicadas singing, get a few mosquito bites...it's summer, enjoy it.

http://spaceweather.com/

Ravine · August-04-10, 12:33 AM

My best summer & insects moment occurred at an off-the-beaten-path resort in San Antonio, Texas, with me sitting out on a second-floor balcony, very late at night, reading and listening to what amounted to a symphony of insects & amphibians buzzing, whirring, and croaking in waves.
I will always be awed by the way they can all go totally silent at the same moment. How in the hell do they do that? I dunno. I don't need to know.

**rb336** · August-04-10, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by Ravine

How in the hell do they do that? I dunno. I don't need to know.

some things are best left to enjoy and marvel at.

**Bobl** · August-04-10, 10:47 AM

I think the trend will be more sightings in the next few years. I last saw them two years ago, in October, at Ipperwash Beach, Ontario.
Our rented cottage looks north, where the lights were shifting around near the horizon of Lake Huron.

**Jimaz** · August-04-10, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Bobl

I think the trend will be more sightings in the next few years.

Yes, according to Wikipedia, the the next solar maximum is currently predicted to occur in May 2013 and to be one of the weakest cycles since 1928. The Sun goes through this cycle about once every 11 years. It's kind of bewildering to think that something as massive as the Sun has an oscillating behavior.

**qweek** · August-04-10, 01:08 AM

So far waves of steamy clouds, flashes of light like heat lightening and a raccoon paying me a uninvited visit in the driveway...that's it. I'm not going to bed yet. Paid a visit to some trusted websites and it looks questionable now...I still have hope plus I don't work until 11:00 so I'm fine for the sleep factor...oh and I have three shooting star sightings! Made a wish on every one, not a total wash out.

Nice story Ravine, I was just thinking about how the bugs hush in unison tonight...same wave, nice.

**gazhekwe** · August-04-10, 07:45 AM

Hey, Qweek! I was thinking about you last night as I was standing in the street in my nightie. Woke up about 3:30 a.m. and put on my shoes, got the dog and went outside to check out the sky. It was super clear with a little sliver moon shining brightly high in the east. I live in a lightbowl, so didn't expect much. All the neighbors dutifully had on their yard lights and each one was wearing a halo of damp glittery haze.

But there, in the middle northern sky, I could see a faint greenish glow stretching in an irregular line for about the space of three houses across. Above it, the sky was very faintly lighter. Absent the ubiquitous wash of ambient light in Southfield, I bet that would have been a spectacular display.

I enjoyed the bug symphony, too. It was a beautiful time to be outside.