Aurorae alert for this weekend!

[Mike Holmes]

An X1.4 solar flare (that's a biggie) let off yesterday. The blast 
should hit Earth's magnetoshpere tomorrow and odds are good for aurorae 
tomorrow night (or Sunday night if it's moving slower than expected).

The last time there was one this big, aurorae were seen in Madrid and 
California, so you don't need to be in Aberdeen to see 'em.

Keep an eye on spaceqeather.com to see when it hits. After that, once 
it's dark, the best tack (if you don't have 100% cloud) is to pop 
outdoors every 15 minutes and look north (look for the Pole Star). The 
most likely effect you'd notice is a white or green glow in the sky. 
Eventually it could look like moving green curtains. If you're very 
lucky, you could see purple or red. The every 15 minutes thing is 
because the Earth's magnetosphere can change quickly under pressure and 
let particles through, so there can be nothing one second, and glorious 
green skies the next.

Piccies:

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/images/aurora/jan.curtis/

Pole Star:

http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Spolaris.htm

Pass it on and good hunting!

FoFP

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