Aurora Borealis Alert!

[Opsa]

Check out this map of where the Northern Lights may be spotted tonight! Are you in the zone?

http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/

[The Meromorph]

As I understand the plots, the blue area merely represents the extent of the area over which readings were taken, there is no expectation of auroral sitings in those blue areas... 

[Opsa]

The Geophysical Institute http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/
has this to say:
"The solar active region that came around the limb last week is now facing Earth. There was a large solar flare with attendant coronal mass ejection from this region at 0224 GMT on the 13th. This interplanetary disturbance should reach the Earth on the morning of the 14th GMT. It could take up to 12 hours to transfer its power to the geomagnetic field. The conclusion is watch the sky tonight and tomorrow night in North America perhaps as far south as the middle US and tomorrow night in Europe as far south as northern Europe. The aurora should be visible also from Tasmania and South New Zealand."

So maybe not us, but perhaps those of us a bit closer to the poles could see some action. That site also has hourly predictions, so check it out to see if the solar winds wind up blowing towards your area!

[Black Bart]

Also keep a close look out (a medium sized pair of binoculars should do) for Father Xmas exploding in the night sky on or around the 25th of this month. In the Northern hemisphere Black Bart's condensed Fish Head Stew should make a fine display in the night sky and in the Southern hemisphere, Dave L's supergun should give off a comet like tail followed by a bright detonation just above Easter island.

[Opsa]

Yeh, that's pretty much what happened to me when I last had Black Bart's condensed Fish Head Stew. I may have been responsible for that hole in the ozone.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

NASA pic of the day has a nice example, if you did not get to see it for real

[Black Bart]

Thanks, that is one gorgeous image. 

I still think the exploding Father christmas will be better though!

[DaveL]

YArrrr...

Well make Santa part of a new aurora known as 'Aurora May-Day May-Day'

Beautiful pics BTW. I'm to far north to experience this. I looks amazing.