Northern Lights

E

El and Bill

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C Dory Year
2000
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22 Cruiser
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Sold in 2012
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Halcyon
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:13 am  
Tom asked about seeing the lights in the San Juan Islands. Yep, we have seen them there - on a dark middle of the night. Also at Lake Powell, Utah and along the Tennessee River.

Certainly not the brilliance of the north country, but beautiful all the same. We lived in a cabin on the shore of frozen Hudson Bay in January some years ago - brilliant. And, of course on winter trips to Alaska - twice we have had to look south for the aurora - north of the Brooks Range and again on the arctic shore of NW Canada.

Keep an eye to the north anywhere you are - they are not a winter treat - simply that it's dark earlier and folks see them - but, any time in the dark night they are possible.

I'm sure there's an Internet site to tell you when probabilities are highest (solar storms) -

They are one of the joys of anchoring put in dark coves while cruising.


http://aurorahunter.com/aurora-prediction.php
Code:
 
Nothing like a good old coronal mass ejection!
 
Wow - saw the northern sky a pale blue-green last night here on the south Superior shore. Dull but there. Maybe tonight will be better.
 
We were supposed to be able to see the Northern Lights here last night according to the news, but the usual cloud cover apparently prevented that. We even set our alarm clock for midnight and got up for a while. We did get a nice electrical show though...
 
A great sIte to predict auroral activity - note the No. America map. There is a band where the lights might be clearly seen- but also note the small blue line south that curves through US. Posible to see down to there.

http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/
 
thanks for the link. looked it up yesterday and we had a 50 50 chance of seeing the lights, which fell to 0% when the cloud cover moved in. I did save the site for future use.
 
Jim and I stayed on the boat last night in a dark spot on Lake Pend Oreille with full view of the sky. We saw a weak performance with waves of pale green lights, around 11 pm, only lasted about 15 minutes. It was still beautiful. The milky way and lots of shooting stars were incredible. The moon didn't come up until 4 am, so the sky was magic.
Marti
 
Marti - what a magical evening and shared in such a beautiful setting. So glad the lights were there for you two.
 
Thanks Bill and El,
Hope to meet you someday. Are you going to Lake Powell?
 
Yes we think we will be there. You too?
 
I think we are going, haven't signed up yet, though.
 
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