A lot of people saw the Northern Lights recently. Or at least it seemed that way, judging from the amount of pictures I saw online. But I was not one of those people.
I have seen the aurora before, many years ago. We don’t often see them around here, but they do put in an occasional surprise appearance. Like last week.
Looking into it online, we seem to be in an upcycle for solar activity. The quick explanation is that sunspots and solar flares can cause energized particles to hit the earth which causes dancing lights in the sky. It’s a pretty impressive show and one that we, even this far south, might be able to catch a glimpse of at various times over the next couple of years.
So I was wondering if something similar might show up again soon. There are several online sites and apps that will tell you. And since these energized particles take about two days to get from the sun to here, it can be predicted fairly well.
But there are other things to take into account. Like how much light is surrounding you. If you’re in the middle of a populated area, it makes it harder to see. And things like a full moon, which is tomorrow night, can also wash out the display.
Or clouds. It seems that almost every time something interesting is going on in the night sky, we get clouds to block it out. Unless you’re willing to wait for a brief window to open in the wee hours. Hours when I tend to be asleep.
Maybe in a couple weeks, as we get toward the dark of a new moon, we might get lucky and get increased activity. But it should continue on and off for the next couple years.
I’ll just keep checking that app, waiting for the right time. From the pictures I was seeing last week, it looks like the show is worth it.