djb@cbosgd.UUCP (David J. Bryant) (11/30/84)
Did anyone else observe an aurora on the night of 11/29-30? My wife
and I had just finished up an observing session with our telescope and
were headed in from our "observatory" when we noticed a greenish glow
on the northern horizon. We watched for a moment to be sure it wasn't
the byproduct of some nearby catastrophe, and rapidly concluded that it
could only be an aurora (although neither one of us had seen one before)!
We estimated the time to be about 11:00pm EST. At that point, the
skyglow covered an area of about 50 degees azimuth and 15 degrees altitude,
right on the horizon, and centered on due north. We watched for about
90 minutes, captivated by the rapidly shifting green light. For the
most part, the aurora looked like greenish light shining on low clouds,
but it was too bright and too high to have come from normal ground sources.
The glowing area shifted and changed fairly quickly, often breaking into
a low band that hugged the horizon and higher condensations that wandered
from west to east. At about 12:10am EST, things got suddenly more intense,
and we noticed several bright green colums that shimmered and danced,
plus a new higher region that glowed an intense red. This active stage
lasted about 10 minutes, and the aurora died back down to a considerably
dimmer state (we went to bed shortly after this lull).
It was fantastic! As I mentioned, neither my wife nor I had seen an
aurora live before (pictures don't do it justice), and we were captivated.
We grew up in Tennessee, which is too far south to have much chance for
aurora observation. Columbus, Ohio is significantly further north, but
we tend to have regular cloud cover here (we missed the phenomenal auroral
display in September 1982 because of heavy clouds).
I suppose that there is a chance for a repeat performance tonight, so
you might want to check it out. Naturally, it's cloudy and threatening
snow here, so we probably miss it.
* *
David Bryant
AT&T Bell Laboratories
* Columbus, OH 43213
* (614) 860-4516
* .
: djb@cbosgd.UUCP
cbosgd!djb@Berkeley.ARPA
* *