[Darkcloud]

One of the world’s most famous and stunning solar phenomena is eagerly expected over Irish skies in the coming weeks............LINKY

This post has been edited by Darkcloud: 09 January 2012 - 12:13 PM

[Playtime]

nice one sean must keep a check on this

would be amazing to see this phenonimum penonimum unusual & rare sight

[corkdragon]

cheers for the link DC - might be an idea to head north for a few days on a spin

[Vixen]

corkdragon, on 09 January 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

cheers for the link DC - might be an idea to head north for a few days on a spin

im liking that idea!

[kevinb99]

Cool, plenty of night shifts coming up, maybe they'll be exciting for a change

[bogman]

Posted this elsewhere yesterday

Quote

Ever listen to aurora, first video shows normal morse code, vhf signals are dramatically affected by aurora and unreal distances can be worked (normal distances would be line of sight, 1200km is easy in a good aurora as the auroral curtain is visible over a huge area, Im a radio ham though not too active at the moment)
The 2nd video shows the Doppler effect where voice and morse signals are distorted, anyone with morse can read code, it all starts after about 45 seconds, to the untrained voice signals will be almost intelligible, a station in the UK is speaking to another in Holland
Normal morse signal
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=9yFEoodwxts

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=oNW0BxxSCQU
Best aurora I can remember was 13 March 1986, but ive only seen visual aurora from Cork twice though its affect on radio signals can extend to Italy during intense storms, best times of the year seem to be around the equinoxes
Best seen away from city lights and when there is no light pollution from the moon, aurorae can be green, red or in rare cases white in colour

This post has been edited by bogman: 09 January 2012 - 06:38 PM

[Gasman]

Saw it here in Ashbourne a few years ago, Believe it or not just north of town was reported by met eireann to be best place in Ireland to view it,

[fabio]

Wonder will it be visible from Cork or should I fill the tank and head north for this at some point...

[corkdragon]

fabio, on 09 January 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

Wonder will it be visible from Cork or should I fill the tank and head north for this at some point...

might be limited viewing hence my idea/excuse for a spin north! lol

[Borderlord]

Saw them here..a few years ago........over the Donegal mountains...a stunning sight........................

This post has been edited by Borderlord: 09 January 2012 - 07:29 PM

[bogman]

Your chances of seeing the aurora increase as you move north, solar flares that occur near the middle of the Sun as viewed from earth spew out charged matter that takes about 72 hours to reach earth
Look at space.com weather and you will see sunspots rotate with the sun, these increase and decrease in size

Spaceweather




Sunspot number 1391 is an obvious one to watch


Geomagnetic activity is monitored by Magnetometers here on earth
http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link[Magnetometers]=Data/



When the chart swings minus and reads from about -500nt its time to start observing, this figure can quickly drop to -1000nt or more

A 3 hourly updated K index shows the level of activity, you need it to be at least 4, 5 to 6 is intense, its low at the moment at 2 so no risk of visible aurora down here though it would be farther north like say at Tromso in northern Norway


Auroral oval around Antarctic


Aurorae extend way beyond earth to Neptune, Jupiter and here at Saturn


Aurora Buddy is an excellent free smartphone app, available for the Iphone (crap-phone) too

This post has been edited by bogman: 09 January 2012 - 08:01 PM

[andy gaw]

been looking at them here for the last few weeks,impressive on a really calm night,but you kinda get used to them being there and tend to lose interest,which is a pity.

[CBR 46]

@Bogman I'm no good at science...do you know anywhere that it'll tell you when they'll be on?

[kairos]

corkdragon, on 09 January 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

cheers for the link DC - might be an idea to head north for a few days on a spin

now this is a good idea !!

[andy gaw]

ye'er all more than welcome to come up here....could do with some company, beer €8.50 for a half liter and 20 smokes is only €11.Rollies are quite cheap at €27 a pack and some shops even throw in the skins

[Tazzzie]

andy gaw, on 10 January 2012 - 09:21 PM, said:

beer €8.50 for a half liter and 20 smokes is only €11.Rollies are quite cheap at €27 a pack and some shops even throw in the skins

Fark in 'ell.
Hope they are payng ye well !

Thanks for the heads up on that DC, would love to see 'em myself.

[Dreamysleepy]

I got very excited when I read in the paper the possibility of seeing this in Ireland, I signed up to Aurora alerts so I'd receive some info. of when there may be a chance to see this happening, I received the following email reply which was a tad disappointing.

Brendan Alexander donegalskies@gmail.com

Jan 10 (1 day ago)


Hi all,

Thank you all for signing up for Aurora Alert. Please read below as I feel a few things may need clearing up following some reporting of the northern lights story.

Clarification RE: Northern Lights

On Friday the 6th of Jan. 2011 I give an interview by phone to the associate press about the northern lights in general. I talked about what they look like, displays I had seen and the solar cycle and so on.

The story was somewhat sensationalised when it appeared in various media outlets. It suggested that the northern light will be visible over Donegal in the next two week. This is wrong as is impossible to say that far in advance that the northern lights would be visible over Ireland or the UK. Northern lights displays in Ireland are rare; I have seen two displays in the last 12 months. The chances of displays happening as soon as the next weeks are slim to none. In the months ahead there maybe displays visible from Ireland but you should follow reliable sources like www.SpaceWeather.com. Also Donegal skies send out aurora alerts 1-3days before possible displays in lower latitudes such as Ireland and the northern UK.

In some of these reports people seem to think that Donegal is a prime location for view the aurora. The truth is the Donegal is among the best places in Ireland to see the aurora but it is certainly not worth peoples while driving long distances to Donegal to see potential display as they would probably look just as good from a dark site slightly further south in Ireland. However, Donegal or anywhere in Ireland does not compare in the slightest to Scandinavia or even Northern Scotland for viewing the Aurora where displays are extremely more frequent and much more impressive.

Finally, contrary to some suggestions on social media sites there were no northern light displays visible over Donegal or anywhere in Ireland last night (9th Jan 2011). Also there are no displays forecasted to visible in Ireland and the UK in the nights ahead.

Kind regards,

[bogman]

CBR 46, on 10 January 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

@Bogman I'm no good at science...do you know anywhere that it'll tell you when they'll be on?

This in online and up to date and is setup in northern Germany, you wont get visible aurora down here until the K index is around 7 or 8, no sign of that happening anytime soon, if you have a smartphone install the Aurora Buddy app, its excellent, keep an eye on spaceweather.com also and my two charts above as any enhancement will be evident right away

magnetometer in Germany

This post has been edited by bogman: 11 January 2012 - 09:35 PM

[Empty One]

bogman, on 11 January 2012 - 09:34 PM, said:

This in online and up to date and is setup in northern Germany, you wont get visible aurora down here until the K index is around 7 or 8, no sign of that happening anytime soon

There's no point in all of us trying to keep an eye on this. I vote we appoint Bogman as the official IBF Aurora Borealis Forecaster.
As soon as he sees that the K index is around 7 or 8 he posts an alert on here, and the rest of us keep an eye out over the next 2-3 nights.
Simples.

[Tazzzie]

Dreamysleepy, on 11 January 2012 - 09:00 PM, said:

I received the following email reply which was a tad disappointing.

Awwwwwwwww.

No fair !