AURORA ALERT

mattser

Read a letter in the Times yesterday from an eminent physician at Trinity. He was talking re. the Aurora B. in Donegal, and that same Aurora always has something sinister lurking beneath.

A few hours later Donegal gets hit by an fcuking earthquake.

Just in case anybody doubted why these guys have letters after their names.;);)

astrofud

Dave Gradwell here

I have a solar observatory near Birr. In it I image the Sun http://www.davegradwell.com I capture solar flares as they go off and I measure the Suns magnetic field. And yes I can tell when an aurora is happening over Ireland whether its cloudy or not from my magnetometer data. Places like space weather will give you a general indication much like saying its going to be cloudy over north western Europe. I have recently started a solar blog at http://astrofud.wordpress.com where I will give alerts of auroral activity and other solar goings on. There's been a lot of stuff reported in the press over the last few days that isnt correct, I've commented on these too.

btw its an M-class flare not a "class M" and there is absoloutley no scientific link between auroral activity and earthquakes

paulosham

I just checked out your site Dave, amazing images.

astrofud

Thnx Paul.

My camera's nackered at the moment so just waiting to get a new one.

DaveG

David09

paulosham wrote: »

I just checked out your site Dave, amazing images.

+1.

Bawnmore

Any chance of seeing anything up north this weekend? I saw a meetup.com group heading up from Dublin this evening until Sunday for some aurora spotting and was curious.

astrofud

Bawnmore
In short no. The Sun has returned to its sleepy norm. My http://astrofud.wordpress.com solar blog gives northern lights alerts from data at my observatory. My solar images are at http://www.davegradwell.com.
TBH dont expect fireworks. The display this week couldve been mistaken for light pollution along the horizon if you didnt know what was happenning. The images that appeared on the 6 one news of dancing aurorae were from up in the arctic.

Dave Gradwell

astrofud

I do talks for clubs, schools, scouts etc on astronomy and especially the Sun. if people are interested they can contact me thro my www.

Dave Gradwell

Iancar29

SO im back from my Abisko Sweden trip! , ONE OF THE BEST HOLIDAYS IVE EVER BEEN ON! WE wer so lucky being there perfect timing for the CME Heres some of my photos its very hard to choose but heres some of my favourites! ENJOY!









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Feel free to check out more on mo bookface... http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=631736717


AND Heres my time-lapse.. sadly some quality lost uploading to youtube but ye... im sure youll all will still enjoy it!


WATCH IN HD ON FULL SCREEN! :cool:

nuttyboy79

Great pics really beautiful

astrofud

Beautiful

DG

Lenny5

Unreal pics. That looks like the perfect holiday! Was it a skying holiday?

Iancar29

SOme more photos now on my flickr page folks

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41948286@N02/sets/72157629066551505/

Batsy

The aurora was seen in parts of Scotland and northern England last week.

The first picture is of the aurora in the skies of County Durham.

The second picture is of the aurora over the famous Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire, on the Pennine Way near the borders of County Durham and Cumbria. The inn is the highest in England, at 1,732 feet above sea level. It once appeared in a TV advert for window fitting company Everest and, in 1995, became the first public house in the UK to be granted a licence to hold weddings and civil ceremonies.

The third picture was taken on the moors of the Pennines in County Durham.

The fourth picture was taken from the A1 near Alnwick, Northumberland.

I don't know where the fifth photo was taken.

The sixth photo was taken in Teesdale, County Durham.













http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090611/Northern-Lights-Extraordinary-display-skies-YORKSHIRE.html

MoonDancer

I just saw the aurora in Sligo about 20 mins ago!!
Get out there and have a look!

astrofud

Moondancer are you sure. All indications here is that auroral activity is low. What can you see?

dave Gradwell

MoonDancer

Yes absolutely sure!! This was bright green behind the clouds and stayed like that for 10 minutes and it's gone now. Brighter then the moon in the sky now it was so bright! It was north.

astrofud

Ok just a couple of more questions

Is it completely cloudy?
Did the glow appear under the cloud cover and appear to light up the clouds?
Did the green glow move?

Thanks
Dave G

MoonDancer

I couldn't tell you if it moved as I was in the car, but there is a thin layer of cloud.
This was one area north in the sky, low that made the clouds glow a really vibrant green colour. I was blown away!! I watch that part of the sky every night and there was never anything like this before!
Benbulben Mountain is north facing, so it was above and behind it, thats how low it was.

astrofud

OK thanks Moondancer

DG

MoonDancer

Just want to make clear, The green was behind the clouds!!

Iancar29

MoonDancer wrote: »

Yes absolutely sure!! This was bright green under the clouds and stayed like that for 10 minutes and it's gone now. Brighter then the moon in the sky now it was so bright! It was north.

Photo???


Hardly believable at all if im honest..


http://www.irf.se/maggraphs/rtplot_flux2_abs.png

MoonDancer

Oh I wish I had, I was driving so wanted to get away from the light pollution but it was gone by the time I did I had three kids in the car and another person in Sligo that saw it.

astrofud

My observatory magnetometer shows stable magnetic activty over Ireland now. BUT there was a flucuation las night due to a faster than normal solar wind buffeting our magnetic field (see my solar blog http://astrofud.wordpress.com ), hence my interest. and all observations must be investigated before being discounted.

DG

MoonDancer

I understand it's hard to believe, but I know what I saw.
Damn it I wish I had a picture to show

astrofud

btw where is kiruna and what is that magnetogram measuring?

DG

JeffK88

Is there Aurora over ireland for last few days . I see above somebody else has mentioned this green sky. If it is not Aurora what is it ? Im going see if i can get a pic of it. Its been there pretty much every night for past week.

JeffK88

Sorry about the quality .. oh and i know its not the moon because tonight is a moonless night .

muckish

JeffK88 wrote: »

Sorry about the quality .. oh and i know its not the moon because tonight is a moonless night .

To me they look like an artificial point source. I don't believe there has been an aurora visible over Ireland since january 22nd.

Calibos

With a bit of mist in the air that could be a floodlit sports pitch miles away. Go to google maps streetview for where you took the picture and face in that direction, then zoom out into overhead map view and see is there sports fields that might be floodlit in that direction