northern-lights

December 27, 2001 8:37 AM

northern-lights is a site dedicated to the Aurora Borealis- the science behind it, lights-spotting, forecasts and historical interpretations. If you live in North America and don't want to miss it, take advantage of the Aurora Alarm, thanks to Mark Haun and his skywatching friends.
posted by kahboom (4 comments total)

I moved to Boston from ålesund, Norway about ten years ago, and have realized how much I took the northern lights for granted... Now I can hardly even make out the stars out here due to all the light pollution... My favorite time of year is midsummer in northern Vermont. I stay at a friend's cottage and lie back in her pool, overwhelmed by the number of stars visible to the naked eye there. And I wish for some northern lights... Check out the videos on the page- they may be small, but they're mesmerizing nonetheless...
posted by kahboom at 8:45 AM on December 27, 2001

According to Spaceweather.com, we had some auroras along the northern tier of counterminous states on Christmas Eve--I was out late, apres Christmas Eve party, (or is that delon, kafakaesque?) catching a night owl bus from the lonely empty Northgate Mall's Metro Transit Center where the lights were extra bright and didn't think to check for them.

What a night, though--away from the lights, the sky was so black and the stars so bright and many--and this in a city, under a half moon at the zenith.

Ooh, I finally saw Orion this year and Jupiter is so bright, too... And tomorrow night, as I write, the Moon occults Saturn!
Mmmm, occulty.....
posted by y2karl at 10:08 AM on December 27, 2001

Occult as a verb... You do learn something new every day. I'm a little link-happy right now, but you just have to see the visitor-submitted photos of the lights...
posted by kahboom at 10:20 AM on December 27, 2001

Yipes! I link to the comment made above from the MetaTalk thread on spell checkers, forget I did and check it ...and find I misspelled conterminous here and there.
But then I get a 360° linkerosity ouroboros outta it!
posted by y2karl at 5:04 PM on December 27, 2001