Northern Lights?
 

Did you see them last night? Around 11pm Mountain Time.

Awesome! :thumbsup:

We've just passed our sixth Canniversary and it's the first time I've seen them! :wub:

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From Calgary?

Stupid question time: How do you know when they are going to appear or is it just lucky timing?

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Hi, I saw some photos on the Weather Network at lunchtime...they look amazing. Whereabouts are you Alberta Rose? Not sure if we can see them here in Airdrie.

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I will post some photos later. It's the first time we saw them too, we were half asleep, I said to OH, I'll just see if I can see anything but I'm going to bed. Looked out the back door and saw what looked a bit like a faint rainbow. I said I can see them - poor OH was snoring on the couch, we jumped in the car and went to where it was a bit darker. AMAZING! I'll see what the forecast is tonight too...

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Yes we saw them from Calgary, and they extended about 1/3 or more of the sky in the N-N/E direction.

We didn't know about them, but my son happened to go out to drive g/f home at that time, and they saw them.

I was amazed at how bright they were, given the light pollution from the city, and a really bright moon last night too.

My son said they were due to a high intensity solar flare, and that there is due to be an even higher one on Sunday ... so we'll be out looking tomorrow night.

There are forecasts available .... http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/2011/09/11

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Time-wise ... I just read that the best time to see them is around midnight local time, and allowing for daylight saving time, I guess that's why we saw them around 11.00pm. They'd disappeared by about 11.15 though ... :(

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yep we saw them from kamloops, was very suprised to see them from here :thumbsup:

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Oo. Please do. I'd love to see them.

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We didn't think about the daylight savings, we watched from 1130pm to about 1230am. The intensity level for last night was a 5 (I get email alerts from the link when it's that high), tonight is a 3 and Sunday is a 4 (all out of 9). The pics are not fantastic, but the idea is there;)

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Thanks for the info Alberta Rose, will be looking out tomorrow night.

We were driving back to Airdrie from Cross Iron Mills last night when our youngest, who is completely colour blind, remarked that the sky was a funny colour. Didn't give it much thought as the sunset has been so pretty last night, it must have been the start of the lights.

Saw our first bear 2 weeeks ago, would be amazing to see these too, fingers crossed!

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We saw them up here in Edmonton. I get the email alerts from Aurora Watch, and I always look out when I get them, but I've only seen the green wavy curtains from a a bit of a distance before.

In our yard on Friday night, we started to see the green appear, and then suddenly, a curtain appeared in the sky over our house, as we were looking directly up in to it, it seemed like the aurora was bursting open.

It was like a special effect from a movie where the alien ship arrives through a vortex :D It was so amazing it was totally overwhelming. The colours were moving so fast, I've never seen anything like it.

I was so glad I'd dragged the whole family out on to the deck when I first saw the aurora appearing, as I don't think they could possibly appreciate what I was talking about unless they'd been there, it was pretty mind blowing.

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Did you get all different colours? ... we only saw green, and we didn't have time to drive beyond the city to look at them in the relative darkness. Must've been awesome up in Edmonton.

I've heard that the Elk Island National Park to the east of Edmonton is THE place for aurora watching!

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aw poo didn't see them last night but have on a couple of occassions here before (just north of Stettler) - and like you Rose, only the green.

Very pretty though

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We saw all shades of green, and this weird grey colour, it was all moving so fast, it was hard to pin down the colours. (plus my brain was deciding it was all too much to process as I was so blown away)

We live on the edge of town, and it was amazing, but right out away from the city it must have been outstanding.

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We saw a couple of tinges of a pinky reddy colour, but only for a second or two, they were mainly green as in my pics though. Too cloudy last night for anything.

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I went out to look for that supernova in the plough last night, but the full moon was so bright Im amazed anyone saw the northern lights.

Seen them once from my southerly location. its was very cool.

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Has anyone done a dedicated trip North to watch them?

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I want to do this. I've always wanted to do it for as long as I can remember but we moved to New Zealand instead !

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What the heck for, I see them about 50 times a year, besides which it's usually too damn cold for sitting outside when the best light shows are on. However, you're meant to get many different colours of the spectrum the further North you go.

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Exactly!

We tried driving to a really dark place on Friday night - we drove out of town 15 mins and then hit the lights from Joffre, we need to go somewhere really dark and dedicate the whole night I think.

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It certainly helps, I have the glow from Edmonton visible to the East in the night sky but it's not too bad for sure.

I'll never forget walking the dog one night at 2am and looking up into a tipi effect of northern lights stretching from each horizon (except due South) to a point way above me. Stood there shivering for about 15 minutes with the dog wondering what the heck was going on.

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When I was working out at Springbank I spent many an evening shift watching the Northern Lights from the tower cab in relative comfort. :)

Unfortunately never had a camera with me at work.:(

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Right ! I'm going to have to make this happen somehow from the bottom of the world but In My Lifetime.

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I'm just glad, with my limited knowledge on photography, that I made somewhat the right adjustments to the settings on my camera to get some sort of pic to work:thumbup:

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You do know that the southern hemisphere has the same spectical called the Aurora Australis.

Not sure exactally where you can see them from (but supposedly they have been seen from NZ), but its more about the correct time of year coupled with a decent coronal mass ejection from the sun.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2096894_see-...australis.html

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Actually you got a lot more than is immediately obvious. :)

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Did you do something???:lol: What programme do you use? I've got photoshop elements, but it's really confusing for a complete beginner.

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Photoshop Elements Version 9.

Click on Enhance, then Adjust Lighting, then Levels

Adjust the sliders to suit. If you don't like what is happening just click on the Cancel button. :)

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I shall play - thank you.:thumbsup:

Hows this one??

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That's amazing.

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you really need to be lucky with the conditions. i'm in Nunavut - been here for 3 weeks and it's been cloudy every night. really hoping we get some clear skies while i'm here! i've seen aurora plenty of times before in far northern Quebec and on the Hudson Bay shore of Ontario, but never seen any really good "curtains" with multiple colours.

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We saw them spectacularly one time in Edmonton, it must have been hmm...1997-98, winter. Huge curtains and a vortex/swirl of pinks and reds right above our backyard. It was actually kinda eerie. We were standing there, in the snow, listening to this crackling noise and looking up at the circle moving right above us. I could totally understand in that moment why many of my Cree friends don't look on them as harbingers of good tidings...

I also saw them in summer once...2003. Late June, early July, out in the country west of Edmonton. Green curtains, spectacular. Obviously it was after midnight for it to be dark enough to see them, but it was the only time I recall seeing them in summertime.

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Very active over Edmonton this evening!

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Yep, OH half came into the bedroom at around 11:30pm (he was still doing stuff outside, quietly so as not to disturb neighbours) and said, those green things are in the sky again. We briefly discussed going somewhere dark and quickly realised we were to tired to do anything crazy like that, he said this morning that they were really bright last night.

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We managed to get a few photo's, it wasn't as good as the light show the other week there, but still pretty fantastic.

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Wow, those are fantastic! I miss seeing them. Apparently we're in an upswing of aurora australis activity here, peaking in 2013 so I hope I get to see something similar to what we'd usually have in Edmonton.

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My younger son saw them that night. He was incredibly moved at how beautiful they were ... the next day he received not one but THREE job offers, having been hunting all summer with narry a nibble. He now feels that the Aurora has some deep significance for him personally, and confided that he'd like to call his first daughter by that name.

He is 20 years old has not even a girlfriend at present. Bless him :)