BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Interesting. May have to see if I can take a look.

I once saw the aurora borealis from my plan window on the way back from Tucson. Pretty surreal.

we would see them over the lake on occasion back home. way better than stupid fireworks. too bad it will be too bright in most of the city proper to see them. if i wasn't so busy this would call for a ride to observatory hill.

I'm glad I found out about this before I see it tonight and mistakenly think it's The Big One.

AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!

Last time the aurora was visible from Pgh and the sky was favorable was about 7 or 8 years ago, and from Pgh (southside), it appeared as a pink shifting cloudlike hue in the northern half of the sky. One could have mistaken it for reflected city lights, but there were no clouds. Observatory Hill will not aid viewing as the City's light pollution is too intense. Moraine is a great location from which to watch, a bit more North, and stray light free for the most part. There, greens and blues were visible, and the crackling could be heard.

Sent this to my engineer friends at the observatory in WV late last night: "An event on the Sun occurred on the 7th of June. Prompt arrival of high speed particles has already affected the atmosphere. Our model indicates that the shock wave will reach Earth on the 8th of June around 5pm GMT. This will be followed by a disturbance in the solar wind that should produce fairly extensive auroral displays within 24 hr after that time.

For the Northern Hemisphere, the aurora should be visible mainly in North America, since the sun is illuminating most of the auroral zone in Russia and Scandinavia. If the timing is right, the disturbance will lead to auroras visible from the Northern US on the night of the 8th.

Antarctica will see the display even beginning with the shock arrival on the 8th. For Tasmania and Southern New Zealand it will be the 9th.

It is difficult to predict what the K index will be during night of the 8th in North America, but it is reasonable to expect K=6 which would put the aurora over Milwaukee, and visible on the northern horizon on a line from Portland Ore, southern Nebraska, southern Indiana, to Washington, DC.

from: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

The site's a good one, and there's a link to the POES near real time pole monitoring satellite on the right hand side of the page. The aurora slides about atop the pole like a bad toupee on a greasy bald head. To see if the hair is in our eyes check where the orange band falls.

In Japan couples try to conceive under the glow of the lights, as it's said to bless the product of that union.

Deer Lakes Park is also good, in NE Allegheny County.

I have North Allegheny Intermediate HS, St John's Lutheran Church, and the new Lowe's all north of me, all dumping truckloads of light into the sky. I can't see anything north until about 45 degrees up. Even at that, I can only see at best three stars of the Little Dipper, which usually means I can't see any aurorae either.

However, the Clear Sky Clock for Pittsburgh shows pretty good overall conditions for tonight!

I have North Allegheny Intermediate HS, St John's Lutheran Church, and the new Lowe's all north of me, all dumping truckloads of light into the sky. I can't see anything north until about 45 degrees up. Even at that, I can only see at best three stars of the Little Dipper, which usually means I can't see any aurorae either.

However, the Clear Sky Chart for Pittsburgh shows pretty good overall conditions for tonight!

Cool chart, Stu. From the 60 mile map linked from the page only Goheenville and Chestnut Ridge Park get the green light. Goheenville?

Nothing. I went out to the Wagman Observatory for a couple of hours. Stars were pretty though.

I was out from 12am- 1:30am up in Dorseville and saw some faint-pinkish glow around the edge of the night horizont sky, but maybe I was hallucinating. It was dark enough that I saw a shitload of stars too!! The moon though, at half, was of a definite orange-pinkish glow! Just beautiful!

I stopped at a nearby overlook, and spent a little time letting my eyes adjust. There was a slight glow to the north, and it seemed to change over time, but it could easily have just been one large business or light source that happened to be turned off while I was looking elsewhere. Stars were pretty, and the moon was beautiful. Not a bad night to spend a few moments looking up, although no great borealis stories to report. Solar action may make tonight good for viewing as well.

Good place to get overall updates in a form understandable by non-geeks: http://www.spaceweather.com/

Auroral oval info is in left column a couple of PgDns down.

I'm just happy to see another spaceweather reader. It's the best jumping off point for all your solar system-y news.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting the 3D SUN App for iPhone.... it is fed from the Spaceweather website and from the STEREO satellite observatories trailing the sun. 3D sun data, space news, space conditions, photos, videos, etc.... at your fingertips for FREE!!

I have the App set-up that I get text messeges everytime a big solar-event happens.

Check it out!