Hey keeperofthehorses... Aurora alert everywhere!

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SunQuest

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keeperofthehorses,

I understand from www.spaceweather.com that their is a very high likelyhood of auroras again tonight. This time they are saying that skywatchers "everywhere" should be on the lookout for them as the X1 flare is directed straight towards earth and that means that places that rarely ever see auroras could have a chance to see them tonight. They were saying that the southern states such as AZ, CA, ect might be able to see them also.

From what I understand, the best viewing times are normally around midnight of the local time for that area.

I am going to try to get some pictures if the hubby will let me make a commotion in order to set up my digital camera and tripod. (I have to go down the road as I am on the back side of a hill and would make it difficult to see) Now if only I didn't have to work tomorrow... I would go up to one of the high mountain peaks and look from there.

Happy skywatching!
 
You have my permission to take tomorrow off. As a matter of fact just take the rest of the week off. Of course with pay (just do not ask for it in advance).
 
Thanks for the heads up Nila

We'll have our eyes on the sky tonight....GOOD LUCK WITH THE CAMERA

Better post photos if you get some.
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Hi Nila!

I just got my email alert from Space Weather. Looks like another sleep-deprived night!
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It's OK though; sleep is for amatures.

My digital camera doesn't have an exposure/shutter time (I don't know these terms) control option. So I'm going to just set it up on the tripod and shut off the flash. I've got the breaker flipped to keep the big mercury barn lights off. I just need a blanket, a thermos of hot chocolate, some fuzzy slippers and I'm set! I might even set up my scope and do some star-gazing.

On the subject... I rented a DVD called IMAX Space Station. It's really interesting and has some amazing pictures. And Nova has been running a series on the Universe the past few weeks.

Thanks for the heads up! Maybe I'll be able to come up with some pictures to share.

Suzanne
 
shminifancier said:
I bet that being in IMAX looks really neat on a Wide Screen TV eh?
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Well it looked pretty cool on a 32", so I bet it'd be amazing on a big screen.
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It's worth renting it just to see the camera lens shattered during a rocket launch.
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I might even set up my scope and do some star-gazing.

Ohhhh have you seen Venus and Jupiter? Amazing!! I have only caught a few quick glimpses, been cloudy here the last week and it figures that its crystal clear tonight but I pulled my back and cant get my scope out
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If you take pics, would you post them? I took some when Mars was close but lost them when the puter crashed good luck catching the Aurora!
 
Well, I have been watching some sites that measure the geomagnetic activity, and it hasn't hit yet according to the measurements. I hope I don't accidently fall asleep and miss it. But boy am I going to be a big waist at work tomorrow. Hee Hee. Time to set the alarm clock for one hour from now to check the updates on those sites. If I am lucky enough to capture anything on this new digital of mine I will surely post it. This is the first time I have ever tried night photography and well, I did lots of research on the photographing of auroras and I hope I am successful. Good luck everyone and happy stargazing if nothing else
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Well, It is 5am mountain time... I have been checking every 2 hours on kp index (measures the atmospheric activity) and it hasn't really done much. The CME (coronal mass ejection) struck earth at about 3 am my time and it is as quiet as can be right now. I walked down to the end of the street and there was nothing to see. But I did take some night pictures of someone's tree that was side lit just so I could see what my camera does. With a little over an hour to go before sunrise, I suspect that we won't get a show right now. Maybe later on the evening of the 15th.
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I will certainly be watching to seee what happens.
 
Ugh, I was up checking all night too, checking the kp and the poes and the sky. Nada, zilch, zero. I somehow have to catch a nap sometime today so I can repeat the whole thing tonight. Coffee, must have coffee....
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Well, I just checked with weatherstation.com and they have posted that the CME didn't spark widespread auroras as they thought it would. Sigh... All of that for nothing.

But... Here are 2 pictures that I took last night just to test settings. Since I had to walk north on my street to climb the very slight hill that I live on the south side of, I decided to photograph the "northern lights" of the neighbor's bush. I will say that every once in a while I thought I saw a quick whispy blur in the sky. But when I went to really look, it wasn't there. I think it was wishful thinking... Or was it?

Now, look at this first picture. My DSLR was set in 100% manual mode. I focused on infinity. My I was using a 28-80mm f3.3-5.6 lens. My focal length was set at 28mm and I had my aperture set to F/3.3, ISO set at 400, and shutter speed set at 30 seconds. Thanks to imagestation resizing this for me
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, it is really really hard to see. But, you can barely make it out on the originals. Anyway, look at the right side of the picture. Look about 1/2 up in the night sky. There is a green whispy line that runs from the right side towards the left over that "straw" home. It is really really faint, but ends in the center of the picture. (Don't laugh... It really was built with straw as insulation in the walls!!! Seriously!) Again, it was much easier to see in the original as it is a 6 megapixel camera.

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This next picture did exactly what I wanted. That bush was so lit up but the neighbor's proch light. I wanted only that bush and the light and nothing else. So I cut the exposure time to 2.5 seconds. Everything else was the same.

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