[CAT] Scratching Post

So i froze my ass off twice in the winter looking for meteor showers. Now its summer and i haven't heard of any big meteor showers...so when is the next one? Or any cool comets coming soon? Need to take advantage of these 60 degree nights.

Perseids. Usually around 12-13 August.

I know I've sent you a link to Spaceweather before. They have all the info on fun stuff to watch in the sky. Meteors, comets, aurorae, noctilucent clouds, you name it. I check it every morning. I'm sure SoDak gets some good auroral displays during a good geomagnetic storm. Spaceweather can even send aurora alerts to your cell phone.

ya, i'm too lazy to check it every day though. but really should. Want to see the northern lights again, they were pretty amazing when i saw them up at university. still can't get over it.

And i still don't get when to know when to look for them though. buncha charts and numbers that don't mean a thing, lol.

and boo waiting till august for some good meteors.

There are usually 2 things that lead to a geomagnetic storm.

Coronal holes are gaps in the sun's outer atmosphere that allow a dense and fast solar wind to interact directly with the Earth's magnetosphere. When there is a coronal hole facing Earth, there's an increased chance for aurorae.

When there is either a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) or Xray flare on the surface of the sun, we can expect a geomagnetic storm within 24-72 hours if that flare/CME is in our direction.

It's kinda like predicting terrestrial weather. Certain things happen that give other things a probability of happening.

Hey, that's a good idea, I may try to show the kids now that I think aboot it... beats lightning bugs in bumfuck Louisiana!!

AURORA WATCH: On July 12th a solar wind stream hit Earth and sparked a geomagnetic storm over Saskatchewan, Canada. "Alerted by a phone call from Spaceweather, I rushed outside and got some beautiful pictures of the auroras," says Bob Johnson of Saskatoon. Sky watchers should be alert for a repeat tonight; the solar wind continues to blow and NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity.

So will this reach south dakota, dick? That one aurora map shows it stretching down to nebraska, so i'm guessing yes...Though the K thing is saying 5 was the max last night...and that only reaches canada. Hopefully i can catch them, will have to be sure i have the camera.

It's the red part on the map you have to watch. The blue part isn't visible to the naked eye.

Oh boo. Glad i didn't drive out of town then to try to see something I couldn't see.

Sweet fucking website. Booked

"Coronal Mass Ejection" - What happens after drinking too many mexican beers.

beat me to it!

So there was some activity that resulted in some lights last night. Sounds like it wasn't quite enough for me here in SD though. There is a 25% chance of more tonight it says....but its supposed to be cloudy all day/night. Was going to look for meteors tonight, some northern lights would have been a bonus...but now looks like i won't be able to even see them if they were happening

We had some heavy activity with zig-zag lines from space, followed by intense bassy noise.
Must be the Steroids-swarm passing.

That wasn't space, Vad, that was Amsterdam launching a pre-emptive rave strike.


I'm totally moving to Denmark.

To get closer to Amsterdam?