Aurora Season Begins

MagnetarJones writes "Northern autumn began today at 55 minutes past midnight EDT (Sept. 23rd at 0455 UT), which means 'aurora season' is officially underway. Scientists aren't certain of all the reasons why, but there are more geomagnetic storms during autumn than other times of year. Already this month three such storms have triggered auroras visible as far south as the Carolinas in the United States. Some were so bright they cast shadows!"

Comments

Best time to look

[minesweeper]

I've never seen them myself either, but I'd love to. According to this page,

The best time to look for an aurora on any given night, unfortunately, is toward the middle of the night and into the morning (If you're an early riser that's okay!). It's always best to look for a weak green glow low in the northern sky. But when big disturbances occur, the aurora can be seen much earlier in the evening and much higher in the sky. If a bright display occurs early in the evening, there is a good chance that another display will follow a couple of hours later. Its colors can vary from green to red, and you can see much shimmering.

You can also keep tabs on SPACE.com's 3-day Aurora Forecast and keep an eye on SpaceWeather.com.

Email Aurora alerts

[bmasel]

Sign up here.

http://angwin.csl.uiuc.edu/~haunma/aurora/