On Monday, November 5th between about 8pm and 10:30pm the western states were treated to a major display of the Northern Lights. So rare are Aurora in the southwest, that for many, it is a once in a lifetime event. A major X1 class solar flare in the previous week sent a huge proton wave of particles directed at Earth, causing the interaction with the Earths magnetosphere and ionosphere to produce activity classed as major storm levels. Most of Arizona was totally cloudy and in Phoenix, it was raining at this time. Here in Payson, in central Arizona, we were lucky to have a clear sky, and an early warning from Spaceweather.com internet site.
Below are seven thumbnails of images that are 800x600 in resolution, and typically 40k in size. They are shot from the balcony on the back of our house, looking north with a 28mm f/2.8 wide angle lens, and Kodak E200 professional slide film, which is very red sensitive. The colors are real, and were very easy to see with the naked eye. I took a self portrait in image 6, most images are 1 to 4 minute exposures.
This final image is all the shots we took that night, between 8 and 10:30, in sequence from upper left to lower right. This shows the progress of the Auroral storm as it developed. it is a clickable image as well, and shows the night ending with moonrise and a moondog on the eastern horizon. This is our 4th Aurora here in the past year, the sun is very active, and as described below, we are keeping a close watch on the future for more activity.
Previous Uploads: The fading comet linear A2 More lunar Closeups - 3 The art of Deconvolving Lunar Images Comet Linear A2 with Jet Sprays Three faces of Comet Linear Comet Linear A2 6-27-01 Van Cittert Deconvolution of the Lunar Highlands More Northern Lights and the ISS over Payson The NGC891 Galaxy Group Notes CCD Shots during Full Moon Comet Linear July 19 & 25th, 2000 Latest image of Comet Linear S4 Spectacular Red Aurora over Payson Arizona Fuji's New Formulation of it new Super HQ100 FIRST TESTS OF HYPERED FUJI HQ100 First Schmidt shots with PJ400 First Tricolor shots with 2415 Test Images with Fuji NPH400 First Two Comets with the new CCD Camera
