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G3 Solar Storm
Thanks to VerucaDave (and goatbert) for passing on this NOAA advisory. Seems that the people of Earth are experiencing the effects of a little solar action. And kevlar wrote with the news
"There are
sightings, as we speak of the Aurora Borealis, as far south as Washington
DC. ... This is a rare anomaly to be seen so far south. To see it, look north right now (best time is around/after midnight). See if you can spy some fast moving
particles! If your latitude is anywhere north of DC, then you should see something with a little effort!" So if you are anywhere on Earth where it still matters, run -- do not walk -- to the nearest spot from which you can scan the sky. May you have clear skies and no light-polluting
neighbors. [Updated 14:40GMT by timothy.]
On a related note, periscope sent in some information about some new satellites that are going up to study this summer's expected solar storms. They're also looking for names for the satellites: here's your chance to put your name in the sky, so to speak. I vote for Andre, Libe, Setsuko and Golfball.
Hi if anyone is looking for the aurorae in Australia try taking a look to the _South_.
There was meant to be some great auroral activity this morning but that was in daylight, there a chance there will be a repeat tonight so go outside and take a look.
Just to let you know, they were absolutely magnificent. I didn't catch the beginning but even in the light pollution of the city I could see them span through the whole sky. As I walked out they were greenish and had quite fast moving features. Then they began quickly turning to red. After half an hour they begun to dim. The show was mostly over at midnight (+2 UTC).
The 'center' or 'radiant' (if you can call it that) was not directly overhead but maybe five or ten degrees southwards which would account to 50-55 degrees northern latitude.
at the same time
d _703000/703937.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsi
spooky - could this be sign of something big about to happen?
That was a freak meteor show if I recall correctly.
heh. Bloody good story though and I remember it scaring me at the time - even the BBC series was good. Even now the sight of plants walking around making clacking noises makes me shiver.
Maybe I should stop taking those drugs
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
I was out last night around sunset to see the rare alignment of 4 planetary bodies (and a few satellites) before I returned to work until late, around 10pm the Observatory phone started rining off the hook.... All the public phoning in to report this event.
And as murphy's law would have it it had got cloudy in the meantime.. Two great events in teh sky and I can only see one of them.
Still, we have a reasonable chance of seeing some more over the coming year since the Aurora tend to lag behind solar maximum by a year or so.
Oh well - I hope this year's comet is greeted with better weather.
New York City is well north of DC.
:-)
I can honestly assure you that the aurora were not visible within the city.
Cheers,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
Most of NYC was laid out in a grid in the early 1800's. The result is that for a city of its size you have an amazing amount of light, and very long views N-S and E-W.
So from the street you can usually see (a bit of) horizon.
Cheers,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
Dammit, I hate posting anonymously...I feel like such a coward.
I've got a lot of friends from outside of the America's both from picking up roommates (I got a huge house near my univerity) and those I deal with online. Still, what is their to care about as an American outside of the US???
I swear we only get involved in extra-american politics just because we are bored (that and most European countrys are too fucking pacifistic to take care of dictators and murders in their backyards...I got into this arguement with an exroommate during the Serbian crap that we had no reason to be involved with other that the fact that ya Europeans simply tried to wish the problem away...)
So why is their the Americas and Everything Else? Because we have enough of our own problems and we could close our doors to the rest of the world and still not be any worse for it...hell, I think most around here would be far happier if we did close our doors and just ignore the rest of the world and take care of our own problems (and believe me...I'd rather have our problems and our perceived limited freedoms and all that compared to any other country in the world.) Those anti-americans out their, go solve your own problems for a few years, and then maybe we can talk again...
Fuck it, I'm going to get marked down as Troll, and I hope enough of you do it so I permanently loose my +2 bonus, but I'm unselecting the Anonymous buttong as I feel anyone should stand up for their beliefs (misspellings and all).
clif
Now THAT is one awesome advertising campaign.
I must go out and buy a Macintosh, right now!!
Damn! Check out those graphics. Stellar!!
Seriously, when I first read the headline, I thought it was a new Mac model. Interesting news anyhow. New England is expecting rain, all weekend. Booo!!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Maybe your dog has just been drinking from the fish boal too much, and freaking out the fish. That would explain why he's peeing a lot, as well as the crazy fish.
Ockham's Razor at its finest.
Well, I experienced a very strange thing. M$ Word did not crash today!
Spooky!
..we all remember how that book started, don't we.
Don't you know that staring at the lights in the sky makes you blind? Or was that something else ?
:-)
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
More specifically, 38.92056 Latitude, -77.06575 Longitude, 0 Altitude
Circumference of earth = 45000km (give or take)
1 degree of lat/long therefore = 125km
1/100000 of degree of lat/long = 1.25m^2
Amazing, all of Washington DC fits in an area of the earth less than 1.25m^2!!Actually, you can't be that specific about the location of Washington DC, which is a big place and can't be defined with such precision (are you using GPS ?). This is one case where less accuracy is better. For cities, coordinates accurate to 2dp (about 1km) are actually a better representation.
If you've provided the exact coordinates of your living room, my cruise missile will be knocking on your door shortly....
:-).
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Useless additional info...
Oops! Circumference of earth is 40,000km rather than 45,000km, since 1m was orinally defined to be 1/10 000 000 of circumference of the earth in 1790 or so. Believe its measured in terms of speed of light nowadays, but metre hasn't changed much, even if the earth is getting larger due to icecaps melting....
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
In Minneapolis it's unfortunatly overcast... This really bummed me out as the proton levels were some of the highest I've seen in quite awhile. On NASA's Space Weather site they posted an alert. Proton levels were up over 20 per cc when they are usually down in the 1-5 range. The solar wind was also up much higher than normal. As I'm posting this the protons/cc is only 1.2. Not very good for Aurora.
Actually, I remember seeing the Aurora (albeit very, very faintly) outside of Chicago in 1989 or so, during a similar storm. My folks and I had to drive about 8 miles out of town to a forest preserve to get far enough away from the city lights to see it, but, it was there.
:)
Last night, I hauled ass down to Sabino Canyon and found a good place in the hills where light pollution was very low, layed down on the hood of my car and gave my eyes a good 20 minutes to adjust. No Aurora.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda)
Bowie J. Poag
Nothing in the skies above Tucson, as of midnight.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda)
Bowie J. Poag
I'd have to agree. I just ran outside (12:20PM) from Surrey (just a few kilometers to the southeast of wsabstract), and can't see diddley. But it's fairly clear Of course, all of New Westminster, Burnaby, and the mountains are in the way. (We're both just north of the 49 degrees N, and about 124 W on the west end of the continent
For anyone who CAN see it, how high above the horizon in degrees do you see the aurora?
Presumably what the comment means is "anywhere on EARTH where it matters," which if we're talking about the latitude of Washington, DC would most likely (I'm not looking at a map) be Finland, all of Scandinavia, Great Britain and Ireland, Iceland, anywhere in Russia Moscow and north, plus at least the northern areas of Poland, Germany, the Benelux countries, and France. Not, of course, to mention a huge chunk of North America not owned by the United States, namely, all of Canada. In other words, a huge percentage of Slashdot readers (unfortunately not those in Australia or New Zealand), assuming it was night there and the aurora was still active (it's possible both could be the case by the time night falls over Europe tonight).
In other words, the comment "Anywhere on EARTH where it still matters" is INCLUSIVE rather than EXCULSIVE. We Americans may be many things, but so far I don't hear any of us laying claims to the Aurora Borealis (heck, most of us have never seen one). We also apparently don't have a monopoly on arrogance and bigotry.
--
Someone you trust is one of us.
Having hit the "submit" button on the above, I got to thinking -- presumably this storm would affect the Aurora Australis (sp?) as well. However, I have to wonder if anyone is able to observe it. Presumably it might be visible to New Zealanders, but (again, I'm not looking at a map) most of Australia might be too close to the equator for it to be visible there. Just wondering.
--
Someone you trust is one of us.
From the links above and the pix. from other
pages it seems to be something right out of
an old sci-fi or the like! Damned, Im in ohio
and I looked out a little after midnight...
did not get crap.. anyone carry your digital
camera with you ? Would like to see how this
STRONG (G3) looked like..
Hmm thinking if Apple may use this as a add
campaign....
Non-Deterministic Finite Automata
I know what you mean. My Garmin GPS told me I was on Venus.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
And beyond that, has anyone's animals been acting weird lately? This is serious... my dog has been howling a lot, and goes outside to the bathroom a lot more! And then the fish are acting crazy too... don't know what's going on in this house.. maybe this is why
Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net) - AOL IM: MicroBerto
Berto
Aurora and Borin Alice
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Appearently there was aurora here in the Netherlands (52.02N 4.05E) last night, but i didnt see anything ;-(... I did notice the TV signals were a bit weak at times and i got some weird spots and crackles all night on it last night. If my ISP hears from this they'll probably blame their breakdowns on it. "Our newsserver is sucking because of increased solar activity"...
Yeah, it's impressive, :p
but i still prefer the flying stars one...
Hammer of Truth
If you are interrested in this or you can't see it, this site has everything you could ever want to see or know about the Northern Lights.
Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
Um, friend, slow down.
The VAST bulk of the United States will not be able to see the northern lights, ever, and anyone with a whit of geography under their belt will know that.
It's pretty clear to me that the 'where it still matters' refers to people waking up and seeing this story while it's still dark in the Deep North or Deep South where this might have a chance of being visible. It has nothing to do with the relative worth of non-United-States nations, and I really can't see how it could be mistaken as such.
To misuse the metaphor, though, when all you have is an axe to grind, everything starts looking like a tree.
--
Anyone else notice any odd occurances with your electronic gadgets?