Capture: Aurora Australis
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Sacha, in reply to
Wow. We would be toast. Wonder if that was the inspiration for Triffids?
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Hebe,
Marvellously amazing. Thank you.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
I’ll wear a parka.
It really is more duffle coat territory...
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Lilith __, in reply to
I’ll wear a parka. ;-)
An anorak, pls. And BYO Thermos and sandwiches. x
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12 months of my past were spent at Scott Base. Of course with 4 months of darkness aurora were visible regularly. One particular active evening I ventured out in about ten layers, took a ground sheet and snuck out to a quiet spot and lay on the snow. They say that aurora sing to you. It seemed so. As one watched, these curtains – imagine floor to ceiling drapes and you are looking from the floor up into them – swished and danced and jetted toward me and drifted back to space. Then to be replaced by another set adjacent to begin the show again.
Anthony Powell’s doco “A year on Ice” has some absolutely majestic aurora time lapse. I took my family to the show at the Embassy and remarked to the audience that after years of trying to describe my experience this doco was easily the best description of what a year on ice was like.
I do wish the aurora would sneak up here a little more. Wellington just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid and I will have to trust Capture to show the bits I miss.
Sigh……
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Lilith __, in reply to
As one watched, these curtains – imagine floor to ceiling drapes and you are looking from the floor up into them – swished and danced and jetted toward me and drifted back to space. Then to be replaced by another set adjacent to begin the show again.
That would be INCREDIBLE! Wow.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Flow and Eddy...
They say that aurora sing to you. It seemed so. As one watched, these curtains...
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Eddie's in the space-time continuum
Imagine if radiation from the sun reached us here on Earth!
Oh wait.
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Seriously, though. Aurorae are very high above the Earth, in the almost-vacuum of the magnetosphere.
Les Cowley of www.atoptics.co.uk has some really good pages on the physics of aurorae. Particularly this one on the atmospheric particles involved. To quote part of it:
Green oxygen aurorae are at 100 km up to about 150 km [above the earth’s surface]. Red oxygen aurorae are 150 km upwards to 250 km and more rarely to 600 km plus.
We only see aurorae because we are looking through tens to hundreds of kilometres of glowing gas. By sea level standards that ‘gas’ is a vacuum. At 100 km, the altitude of green aurorae, the atmosphere’s pressure is a millionth of that at sea level and the mean distance an oxygen atom travels between collisions is about a metre^^. Even so, it undergoes about 500 collisions each second and any excitation is quickly removed. At 200 km, where the red oxygen aurora glows, the vacuum has hardened. The oxygen atom will travel on average 4 to 5 kilometre between collisions and will be hit on average only once every 7 seconds. Excited atoms then have ample time time to radiate their energy and their collective light over a layer perhaps tens of kilometres thick gives us the soft and elusive auroral glow. Lights in a vacuum.. ..almost!
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Sorta related to the whole dim light thing, human beings emit photons
http://io9.com/human-bodies-glow-proving-that-the-world-is-weirder-th-1692485686
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What beautiful images of the sky.
On the eve of Sunday’s Cyclone I got a few shots of what felt like a very nice sunset. The sky was all over the place like a… -
Wonderful photos from two very generous photographers.
Last year our 14 year old daughter and I were lucky enough to see our first Aurora- heading off to Tomahawk beach in Dunedin, kindly met by Paul. He gave me a very quick and helpful instruction on my camera settings, and also shared “tripod time” when seeing the “mixed” results I was getting from resting my camera on my jacket on the sand (some worked ok, but moisture from the sand kept fogging up the lens).
Probably most on here follow Paul (and Ian) on twitter- both frequently post amazing pictures, and Paul’s highly energetic, enthusiastic and generous personality certainly comes through.
Here is an image from that night- such an amazing experience to see. (my shots i thought were somewhat martian-like)
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Nice. Very martian.
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Incoming!!
SOLAR WIND STREAMS--HITS AND MISSES: A solar wind stream expected to hit Earth on March 29-30 has apparently missed. It likely sailed south of our planet. The good news for sky watchers is, another one is on the way. It is flowing from this gaping coronal hole on the sun.
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Because this coronal hole crosses the sun's equator, the solar wind it spews is likely to hit Earth squarely--no misses, this time. ETA: April 2nd or 3rd.see:
http://www.spaceweather.com/Plus
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON: On Saturday morning, April 4th, sky watchers in the USA can see a brief but beautiful total eclipse of the Moon. The event will also be visible from Mexico, western Canada, across the entire Pacific Ocean, Australia, Indonesia, and elsewhere.
Elsewhere includes NZ smack dab in the middle:
see:
http://shadowandsubstance.com/ -
Thanks Again Paul & Ian, I had seen some of these on twitter but not all and it was great to find them here in one place.
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Incoming!
http://www.spaceweather.com/ reports:Yesterday, April 18th, a magnetic filament attached to sunspot group AR2321 erupted, producing a C5-class solar flare. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the filament splitting the sun's atmosphere as it hurtles away from the blast site:
Part of the escaping filament formed the core of a faint CME, which is now heading almost directly for Earth. The cloud should reach our planet during the late hours of April 21st. In combination with a solar wind stream already en route, the impact could spark geomagnetic storms around the poles on April 22nd, Earth Day. -
A bit of jump in sky energy activity this evening, not quite enough yet to get me out of the house, but enough to pass it on to southern folk to keep an eye on.
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Katharine Moody, in reply to
What a lovely 'just me and the heavens' moment that would have been.
Agree with everyone - big thanks to the photographers for sharing.
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With apologies for the 'dear interwebs' request, I'm in Auckland for a few days and am trying to find time away from other responsibilities to check out graffiti/urban art. Are there particular streets, 'burbs in/around the Capture community recommends? I'm assuming Grey Lynn, Dominion Road etc?
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JacksonP, in reply to
I’m assuming Grey Lynn, Dominion Road etc?
K'Rd would be best. Last month they had the annual All Fresco on K'Rd and surrounds. If you follow the link to the All Fresco Website, there's a link to the map.
Happy hunting, and welcome to Aucks.
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That's cle_er Jackson, hitting a whole lot with one link. There's the genie near the Auckland library too, and Ralph Hotere in Kingsland. There is a bit in different parts along Dominion Road, long road small returns?
This is Grafton.
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