Tag Archives: Aurora

At the Giant’s Causeway, Co Antrim.

By Martin McKenna, who sez:

The aurora we saw was sublime!, the best I have seen here since 2005 with vertical green pillars of light some 60 degrees high accompanied by amazing pulsating/flaming motions like the beating of a heart which was jaw dropping. We could even see the beams reflecting on the ocean forming their own glitter paths – what a night!! Canon 450D, 18mm, ISO1600

And nearby Ballintoy Harbour:

Via SpaceWeather.com

From Astronomy Ireland

Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, a coronal mass ejection (CME) and a class-M solar flare erupted from the Sun, sending material almost directly towards Earth. This cloud of charged material is expected to arrive at Earth on Saturday night at roughly 10:30pm, but conditions within the cloud and in space can possibly alter this by a number of hours.

When it arrives, there is a small chance that the aurora borealis (northern lights) will be visible from Ireland. We suggest keeping an eye on the northern sky from 6pm on Saturday evening and throughout the night, into Sunday morning. If it appears, the aurora will have a green and/or red colour, most likely just over the northern horizon.

Ideally it is best to watch the aurorae from a location as far north as possible, but depending on the strength of the CME from the Sun, they can be visible further south. We recommend picking anywhere that has a dark sky with a clear northern horizon.

It’s because of a “coronal mass ejection” from the sun.

Sun has obviously been reading the ‘How To Shit’ post.

Astronomy Ireland

On March 1st , 2011 a fast moving solar wind stream impacted Earth causing a G1 geomagnetic storm which hit during daylight hours for all of the UK and Ireland. What began as an interesting surge in activity turned into a high alert event when the KP reached a value of 6 with a south tilting Bz component.

Quite.

More to the point, photographer Martin McKenna was out on the Antrim coast taking pictures of it.

Full gallery at NightSkyHunter.

(Thanks CairoTango)