Did Members In Northern US and in Canada See The Aurora Borealis?

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

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New Jersey
The AB was supposed to have been visible Oct 11th in parts of north America that it usually isn't. I so wish I could see this "in person" it's magnificent on it's own but with that starry sky...WOW!! Just skip the ad.
 

That is beautiful !
When I lived in Idaho and eastern Washington, we often saw the Aurora Borealis. My mom called them the Northern Lights , and I remember her waking me up in the wee hours of the night to come outside in the yard (in my pajamas) to watch them ebb and flow and the colors change.
Naturally, I also woke my kids up in the middle of the night to come outside and watch when we had this happen, too. The one that was the most awesome to me, was when I lived in Spokane, Washington, and the northern lights were a glowing red color, rather than the usual greenish ones. I have never seen this happen again, so it always stays in my memories.
Now that I am in Alabama, there is no chance of seeing something like this , and I can barely even see stars at night because of the city lights, the trees, and often clouds in the sky.
 

We used to see the distant flickering of the Aurora Borealis when we lived in small town Alberta, back in the early 50's. I remember having to draw them on the blackboard, which was difficult without having really seen them. We must have been shown a photo .. don't remember.

Unfortunately, we are too far east to see them.
 
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The only time i've ever seen what we call Northern Lights in colour, was when had spent a year in northern Manitoba.....Leaf Rapids.
Beautiful dancing colours.....but....not as spectacular as shown on the video, or as some of you have enjoyed.
Here in the south, only white lights.....not often.....not long.....not as active.......Sad.😕🙁☹️
 
I don't know if the video below was manipulated in any way to make it more spectacular but with all of these colors, spectacular is is! @Happyflowerlady I imagine this is similar to what you saw when the color glowed red. How blessed you are to have witnessed the northern lights more than once! Wonderful that it was with loved ones too. @MrPants I'm envious of you too...having seen them more than once!
@Pecos @MickaC @Paco Dennis @Pinky @Manatee

 
OneEyedDiva said:
I don't know if the video below was manipulated in any way to make it more spectacular but with all of these colors, spectacular is is! @Happyflowerlady I imagine this is similar to what you saw when the color glowed red. How blessed you are to have witnessed the northern lights more than once! Wonderful that it was with loved ones too. @MrPants I'm envious of you too...having seen them more than once!
@Pecos @MickaC @Paco Dennis @Pinky @Manatee

Click to expand...
Obviously there was time lapse used and the video quality was above what you'd get with your phone or a standard camera. There was likely some editing done as well but most of the images I saw are pretty representative of what you might see under optimal conditions because they are often more muted or limited in their intensity but at other times, they're intense and beautiful beyond description.
The aspect you can't duplicate in video or photos is the surrounding visuals. The light display may be limited in scope at times but what's going on in your peripheral vision does make a difference, even if it's just a jet black sky.

Here's an article that may be of interest to some from 'The Aurora Zone' on the actual process involved:

The Aurora Borealis originates some 93,000,000 miles away on the surface of the Sun with a massive explosion of electromagnetic matter called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). CME’s usually emanate from the more active areas of the Sun’s surface and they throw a stream of electronically charged solar particles known as Solar Wind into the vastness of space. It is when these particles are directed towards the Earth that we can see the Northern Lights three or four nights later.
As the Solar Wind approaches the Earth it causes a distortion in our magnetic field and, whilst most of the particles are deflected away from us, some escape into our atmosphere around the magnetic poles. At this point, the “escaped” particles collide with the atoms and molecules that form the gases in our atmosphere and cause them to become “excited”. This is a complicated business but essentially, when an “excited” atom or molecule begins to calm or return to its original state, it emits photon energy in the form of light.

It is the emissions of these photons on a huge scale that causes the Aurora to appear in our night sky.
 
MrPants said:
Obviously there was time lapse used and the video quality was above what you'd get with your phone or a standard camera. There was likely some editing done as well but most of the images I saw are pretty representative of what you might see under optimal conditions because they are often more muted or limited in their intensity but at other times, they're intense and beautiful beyond description.
The aspect you can't duplicate in video or photos is the surrounding visuals. The light display may be limited in scope at times but what's going on in your peripheral vision does make a difference, even if it's just a jet black sky.

Here's an article that may be of interest to some from 'The Aurora Zone' on the actual process involved:

The Aurora Borealis originates some 93,000,000 miles away on the surface of the Sun with a massive explosion of electromagnetic matter called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). CME’s usually emanate from the more active areas of the Sun’s surface and they throw a stream of electronically charged solar particles known as Solar Wind into the vastness of space. It is when these particles are directed towards the Earth that we can see the Northern Lights three or four nights later.
As the Solar Wind approaches the Earth it causes a distortion in our magnetic field and, whilst most of the particles are deflected away from us, some escape into our atmosphere around the magnetic poles. At this point, the “escaped” particles collide with the atoms and molecules that form the gases in our atmosphere and cause them to become “excited”. This is a complicated business but essentially, when an “excited” atom or molecule begins to calm or return to its original state, it emits photon energy in the form of light.

It is the emissions of these photons on a huge scale that causes the Aurora to appear in our night sky.
Click to expand...
Thank you for explaining the phenomena. I read that CMEs were expected to cause minor disruptions in certain areas last week (or week before last?). I think the UK was one of them and I meant to ask our UK members if they experienced anything. I get Google News feeds about CMEs and possible disruptions due to them. I know if we ever get a massive one we'll be greatly inconvenienced (our technology), possibly for months due to the severity of the disruptions it will cause. And from what I understand, we dodged a bullet in that respect fairly recently.
 
I believe I saw it years ago when doing a job in Tidewater Va. but I cannot be sure. Here is a live YouTube link that is suppose to be monitoring the Aurora Borealis twenty four seven. I have watched it a few times.

 
Several people around here saw them a few days ago, I wasn’t so lucky. You can’t have urban light pollution and it helps to be on higher ground.
 

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