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Northern Lights Goes Nuts In Nebraska

ciMedia writes "By far the most amazing photo adventure of the northern lights. These lights lasted into early morning."

15 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Fairly Slashdot Resistant by LakeSolon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Should stand up to a /.ing fairly well, they seem to be coloed at Level3.net in Seattle.

    http://www.level3.com/userimages/dotcom/images/map s/Colocation_Map.GIF

    ~Lake

  2. Nice! by eingram · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd love to move further north just so I could experience this phenomenon (and the cooler climate would great, too).

    I also need to get away from this god awful light pollution.

    Very nice photographs. Do you have higher resolution versions available?

    1. Re:Nice! by tommyboyprime · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know if many Slashdotters know it but the Japanese believe that conceiving a child under the Northern Lights is a good luck thing. It seems that travel companies book tours to Alaska just for this reason.

      --
      This parrot has ceased to be!
  3. Holy T&L by AbsurdProverb · · Score: 4, Funny

    God must be running one of those new ATI cards.

  4. Damn! by over_exposed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Damn damn damn! I had this link sent to me by a mutual friend 5 days ago! I should have submitted it... Oh well... I'll live. BY THE WAY - check out the rest of his site - he has some amazing pictures of tornados and lighting storms as well. This guy is one ballsy, talented photographer.

    --
    "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
  5. As seen from space by linuxwrangler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The auroras were spectacular from space ase well as today's photo from spaceweather.com shows:

    --

    ~~~~~~~
    "You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
  6. I wonder by TheAxeMaster · · Score: 3, Insightful


    I wonder if this has anything to do with a pole shift? I know the aurora are caused by solar wind particles coming down the tops of the magnetic field lines of the earth, and there have been theories for years about certain times in the history of the earth the poles flipped.

    I guess it's possible anyway......

    1. Re:I wonder by dtolman · · Score: 2, Informative
      The two episodes of unusually active aurora's over the past year have more to do with the sun than the Earth.

      Though I have read that a side effect of the magnetic pole flip when it does come could be more wide-spread aurora activity...

  7. Re:I've always wanted to see them by dtolman · · Score: 3, Informative
    Then you need to check spaceweather.com!

    I used to say the same thing - but I've now had at least two l chances in 1 year to see them on Long Island - many miles to the south of you. The last opportunity was only a week ago (same event that sparked this story).

  8. I miss the northern lights by empaler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I haven't seen the northern lights since I was on a plane between New York and Iceland a few years back... It was so beautiful that my eyes startered watering...

    Do yourself a favor: See the northern lights before you die...

  9. Link by pbrammer · · Score: 5, Informative

    This may be of interest to some: http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/

    Contains forecasts and historical data plots.

    Phil

  10. Re:I saw 'em! by andygodwin · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're caused by high energy particles colliding with the upper atmosphere... check Wikipedia if you want more info.

  11. Aurora pictures and radio reflections by leighklotz · · Score: 3, Informative

    When there is lots of aurora, the ionospheric reflection of radio is also perturbed. Read this description of the week from the RF point of view. In summary, the High Frequencies (3-30MHz) lose out, but he Very High Frequencies (30-300Mhz) gain. In particular, the 6 meter (50MHz) ham band showed some interesting reflections. For reference, that's right around tv Channel 2 in the US. Imagine not only being able to see Aurora, but sense them with your own radio and talk to someone by bouncing radio waves off of the aurora!



    VA2VYZ has some nice aurora pictures from Quebec.

  12. How Not to Take Photos of the Northern Lights by Creosote · · Score: 2, Funny

    The photos here reminded me of the first time I saw the Aurora Borealis, as a kid on vacation with family at Yellowstone National Park. We were staying at the Old Faithful Inn, and after dark wandered onto the porch to find a fairly impressive display of the lights in the northern sky. A woman near us pulled out her Instamatic camera (precursor to today's disposables, basically, fixed-focus cheapies) and started snapping flash pictures of the lights.

    My parents did a good job of not laughing until she went back inside...

  13. Re:small island my .... by MrPeach · · Score: 3, Informative

    You'll also notice that most maps are a Mercator Projection, which makes things pole-ish look really a lot larger than they actually are. For example, Greenland looks the size of Africa on most Mercator maps. In actuality, it is (839,999 sq miles) a little less then 1/4th the size of the USA (3,536,278 sq miles). If you take into account that it is only 19% usable, that leaves only 159,600 sq miles of habitable land, which is slightly larger than the state of California (but a lot less hospitable).