The elusive northern lights may be making a rare appearance in the next few days. The projections by the astronomers who know this stuff are looking good for the nights of January 2-3 and 3-4th. They are now calling these nights, “active projections”.
There has not been two days of active projections in one month since the first week of last October and when it did happen that week, northern New England saw a few nights of great shows that were put on courtesy of the northern lights.
Also, January is scheduled to have another active night. This one will occur on January 9-10th. I hope we are lucky enough to have the lights put on a show like they did a couple of months ago, If there is a solar storm that happens on those days and it throws off a few solar flares or sunspots and it could be a big event.
Since Galileo’s time, scientist and astronomers have been keeping track of sunspots and have found that they have an increased level of activity every 11 years. This activity has been on the increase for the last few years and this winter 2013-2014 should be the "Solar Max" of the 11 year cycle.
Watching this celestial phenomenon is truly a magnificent sight and a photographers dream. If you are planning a trip to see the aurora there are a few things that you must consider.
The first is the timing and then be ready for the word to travel. The next is location, head north and head rural.
It will also have to be a clear night without interference from city lights. Light pollution is the light that bleeds into the night sky, even if you can't see the "glow" of a nearby plaza; it’s there and will reduce images in the night sky. And last but not least is weather: will it be clear? If you have all those pieces going for you, grab the camera, tripod and “go for it”
There are a few good web sites available that I follow this stuff with and have added the links to below.
soft serve news aurora alerts space weather gli Alaska aurora watch
There has not been two days of active projections in one month since the first week of last October and when it did happen that week, northern New England saw a few nights of great shows that were put on courtesy of the northern lights.
Also, January is scheduled to have another active night. This one will occur on January 9-10th. I hope we are lucky enough to have the lights put on a show like they did a couple of months ago, If there is a solar storm that happens on those days and it throws off a few solar flares or sunspots and it could be a big event.
Since Galileo’s time, scientist and astronomers have been keeping track of sunspots and have found that they have an increased level of activity every 11 years. This activity has been on the increase for the last few years and this winter 2013-2014 should be the "Solar Max" of the 11 year cycle.
Watching this celestial phenomenon is truly a magnificent sight and a photographers dream. If you are planning a trip to see the aurora there are a few things that you must consider.
The first is the timing and then be ready for the word to travel. The next is location, head north and head rural.
It will also have to be a clear night without interference from city lights. Light pollution is the light that bleeds into the night sky, even if you can't see the "glow" of a nearby plaza; it’s there and will reduce images in the night sky. And last but not least is weather: will it be clear? If you have all those pieces going for you, grab the camera, tripod and “go for it”
There are a few good web sites available that I follow this stuff with and have added the links to below.
soft serve news aurora alerts space weather gli Alaska aurora watch
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