Northern Lights

[Quickstrike]

just looked outside and the northern lights were going pretty good. if you get a chance you should check them out!

[deepdiver]

Yeah saw them driving up for a very long time... amazing ...

[chunkytrout]

Pretty impressive up here as well. Always reminds me of those long cold winter nights. COME ON ICE!

[Casaloma]

Nice. We got calls from Prior Lake, MN & Ashland WI. Friends asking if the Duluth show was going. They are & all across the state! Cool...

[Tom Linderholm]

Friend from Atlanta just called asking if I could see them here, he did the same thing last year when we had that stellar show. Gotta love it.

[Quickstrike]

Deepdiver, haven't seen you on here for a while. you gotta get out with us this week and get a couple loopers. i think i'll be our tuesday.

[Northlander]

Very good show up over the hill. Once I got away from the city lights it was even better. Wish I would have had a good camera.

[Surface Tension]

Those were some of the best lights I've seen for some time.

[deepdiver]

Hey QS Ill give you a call today after my 10:00 class dont want to wake you so early

I need to head to Gander today to get a rod for those loopers... Ill call you to get some advise or if you want to come with would be even greator

Ill talk to you later today, if you want to hit the rivers tomorrow anytime ill be more than willing

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

That was some show, only saw them better than that once, in quetico. The variety of colors last night was sweet. THere was everything from red to purple, to green.

[Polak]

I would have to agree, some of the best I have seen for many years, last time I saw lights like that was on a fly-in trip up in Ontario.We were at Deer camp in the park Rapids area, I watched them all the way home to Fergus Falls.

[mudslinger64]

channel 10 news is going to show them tonight

[scifisher]

Yes, I saw them and I took my daughter (2.5 years) out to see them. We pointed out the colors and talked about the stars. Then my brother, who is going to college up here mentioned that they were caused by reflections off of glaciers...

Who else thinks this is correct?

scifisher

PS - I heard the same thing on the radio this morning. There is quite a misconception floating about...

[Casaloma]

Glacier Reflections, thats a good one.

What they really are is reverse rainbows reflected from tiny ice particles in the upper Steggleosphere.

Thats what I bought as a kid.

[Quickstrike]

I have also heard the glacier theory before

[Tom Linderholm]

Check out picture under the photo sharing forum, sweet!

[upnorth]

From what I remember it is a solar flare reflecting off of the polar ice cap.

[chunkytrout]

They're at it again. Two nights, sweet!

Positively charged particles in space colliding with gasses propelled by solar winds and lighting up. The short basic answer. Goes a little deeper than that though.

[Mudcutter]

AS a weather nut and amatuer astronomer the Northern Lights are caused by the Sun's solar flare energy interacting with the earth's magnetic field. AS you watch them, imagine iron fillings being attracted to a magnet. It is basically the same thing. The further north (auroara borlieas)or south in the southern hemisphere ((auroara austrials)) you go, the better the luck you have in seeing them, as you are closer to the source of the magnetic field and your skies are darker longer in the respective seasons. Even down here in Iowa last night they were in vivid colors. The best in 10 years from what I hear. Can't imagine what they were like 8 Deg's latitude further north.

Happy viewing,

Mudcutter

[Xplorer]

They were going pretty good again this morning at 5 when i took the dog for its morning walk. Gotta love it.

[scifisher]

Good explanations guys, I'll add a little. These charged particles from the solar wind speed up when they attract the magnetic feild lines of the earth. When they strike an atom or a molecule in the earth's ionosphere that molecule's elections charge up a number of energy levels. This is an unstable state for the atoms so they eventually emit a photon to disperse the excess energy. The amount of energy abosorbed, the atom or molecule in question, and the energy configuration of the electron shells determine photon color (wavelength).

I was up at five this morning. Great morning for viewing stars. Mercury was out in the east, near the horizon. There were a couple of other planets near the moon tracing out the line of the ecliptic. I didn't see the lights...

[Xplorer]

Sci,

I thought that was Mercury that I've been seeing in the mornings. Out where I'm at, the star viewing has been great the last week or so. I was able to watch the northern lights undulate in the sky all the way in, until I got to Spirit Mountain on the interstate. Colors wern't as vivid as sunday night tho.