Gransnet forums

Science/nature/environment

Northern lights

(59 Posts)
tanith Fri 11-Oct-24 06:45:55

Something I never expected to see in London but there it was from a bedroom window. It was very faint with the naked eye but much brighter with my phone camera.

Gundy Sat 12-Oct-24 17:00:51

Absolutely spectacular across the U.S. and locally where I live (northern Midwest). I personally did not see them but my friends who did shared pictures.
Nature is truly magical sometimes.

Annma Sat 12-Oct-24 19:17:59

Fantastic views away from streetlights here in Cheshire.

AreWeThereYet Sat 12-Oct-24 20:21:03

MiniMoon

My phone doesn't take good night shots. All I managed to capture was a red blob, when actually the sky was ablaze with red looking to the north east, and in the north dancing white curtains of aurora.
Looking out of my bathroom window at 3 am there was a beautiful bright white STEVE.
Oh for a better camera.

That's impressive, seeing a STEVE. Apparently they are a lot more common than they used to be, but still not that common.

Sarahr Sat 12-Oct-24 21:26:05

We have missed them each time because we didn't know they were there. Neighbours both sides saw them. What is so sad, is that nowadays nobody knocks on the neighbours door to let them know. 😕

Grantanow Sun 20-Oct-24 09:15:13

I don't think there's any evidence that the Northern Lights are dangerous.

Allira Sun 20-Oct-24 09:54:54

Grantanow

I don't think there's any evidence that the Northern Lights are dangerous.

Unless you're so busy staring at the Northern Lights you don't notice a shooting star heading straight towards you.

David49 Sun 20-Oct-24 10:22:57

The latest cameras enhance the images greatly, where I was the aurora was invisible to the naked eye. Pointing the camera north was a brilliant display, nothing to the south

The cause is more than usual solar flare activity fluorescing Oxygen or Nitrogen in the outer atmosphere, no risk. But of course the doom mongers will say the sun is going to explode, if I does it doesn’t matter we are all toast.

AreWeThereYet Sun 20-Oct-24 15:03:41

But of course the doom mongers will say the sun is going to explode, if I does it doesn’t matter we are all toast.

I don't think many people are really worried about the sun exploding but quite a few people are worried about the effects on our power systems when there are massive CMEs (as opposed to flares). If the power system goes down we lose SATNAV, banking systems, internet communications, food production systems, medical systems, pretty much everything. There's a reason NASA has satellites monitoring sun activity 24/7.