November 24, 2001

1:04 AM

SpaceWeather.comis predicting another aurora showing this weekend due to the sun erupting a coronal mass ejection toward earth on Nov. 22nd. Although I live in the far west Chicago suburbs, others around my area saw the wild aurora showings on October 28th and November 6th. I missed them both because I didn't know about these events (which is why I now subscribe to the SpaceWeather.com mailing list). Had I known, maybe I could have seen this, or this, or maybe this, all from around the midwest! One thing's for sure, I'll be outside this weekend. The sky is very busy this fall!
posted by Sal Amander (9 comments total)

Thank you for the great link Sal Amander. I live in Tasmania, Australia which it seems is the wrong location to be in for Leonids viewing...damn!

Good luck with your skywatch.
posted by Tarrama at 3:36 AM on November 24, 2001

Thank you for the great link Sal Amander. I live in Tasmania, Australia which it seems is the wrong location to be in for Leonids viewing...damn!

Good luck with your skywatch.
posted by Tarrama at 3:41 AM on November 24, 2001

things are looking up for looking up here...
posted by y2karl at 6:44 AM on November 24, 2001

Aurora Forecast for Saturday, November 24, 2001 from Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska (found at spaceweather.com) with custom map for here.
posted by y2karl at 7:26 AM on November 24, 2001

I've found that Alaska Aurora Forecast to never be very accurate for people viewing in southern Canada/northern States.

This page is more detailed and far better to use in conjunction with your viewing: The Solar Terrestial Dispatch.

Just click on the "Auroral Activity" Section.

Many graphic representations of the activity, warnings/watches are listed, as well as visual reports from observers.

The storm was already brewing outside when this post was made so you should've gone outside right then to look :P
posted by yupislyr at 10:09 AM on November 24, 2001

Just click on the "Auroral Activity" Section.

As you well should know by now,
yupislyr, I don't use the word "hero" very often, but you are the greatest hero in American history.

Thanks!
posted by y2karl at 12:40 PM on November 24, 2001

This is so annoying. I lived for two years in northern Minnesota, then left rather quickly without ever seeing the aurora. Now I'm back in Oregon, and several times this year the aurora has been seen as far south as North Carolina and Kansas, but not here. So now it's looking like another good night for the aurora, and guess what? It's snowing! It snows here about once a year, and it had to pick today. Dang.

*sigh* Great link anyway. Those photos are amazing.
posted by diddlegnome at 1:38 PM on November 24, 2001

Damn it, rainy and overcast again today. Still, it seems that the predicted aurora's came early this morning. Yes, it was cloudy here yesterday as well.
posted by Sal Amander at 4:57 PM on November 24, 2001

I was walking south on a street east of Broadway, the main street of Capitol hill around midnight on August 18, 2000-- I'd gotten home from a movie, there was nothing to eat, so I'd gone to Safeway, bought some potato salad and was stuffing my face on unlit Federal. I was throwing the trash in a dumpster in a parking lot near Twice Sold Tales and looked up and... the sky was shimmering and flashing and streaks of color just shot across two full moons wide and six long. I ran to the bookstore and told them and everyone ran out on the street and just went nuts. You could see auroras on a brightly lit urban arterial."It was like thirty minutes after the last time I'd dropped acid," someone later said.

I went home and up to my roof and saw this green band all across the north. I was up until four watching the sparkles.

I'd seen aurora as a child, hell, I'd even heard them in the biggest display of 1958--like distant thunder--but I never saw such shimmering... It's overcast as usual here.
posted by y2karl at 9:20 PM on November 24, 2001