aurora borealis

[djbadmonkey]

i'm looking at the november issue of national geo, and i have to say that before i die, i'd like to gander upon some kind of aurora. they look so mind blowing that i gotta see one...

anyone here have the privelege of witnessing one of these things? man, i could only barely imagine the magnitude of awesomeness...

put your glowsticks away. nature's putting on the show.

djbm

[Eric Nakamura]

I'd like to see one while standing on the ground, or sitting. I actually saw one from an airplane window while travelling back from the east coast to the west.

eric

[Make Room]

Man, I lived in Alaska for a while and I never saw one. Kinda regret that, but I was a child and all so I didn't have many resources at hand to go out and see them bitches.

We should round up a possie of robots and trek up to the Northern Frontier for some Aurora Borealis hunting. It would be like a Jack London novel.

[trigonometry_vs_velvet]

that doesnt sound like a bad idea.

[Margin Walker]

This reminds me of the Northern Exposure episode where the gay couple open up a bed & breakfast. At first, it seems like the Japanese couples flock to the B & B to meet the NASA astronaut, when actually they vacationed in Cicely because of the Northern Lights. I don't know if this is an actual custom, but in the show they explained that if couples knocked boots under the Northern Lights, they'd have a baby....

[Tom Servo]

I saw them once when I was ten, in the boundry waters of Minnesota. Really beautiful they were.

[Phyrephox]

At this time of day? In this part of the country? Located entirely within your kitchen??

[ocd]

I saw them when I was in 6th grade, during my brief stay in northern Maine.

i want to see it really bad.

anybody know if they happen in june?

i'm trying to convince my fiance that we should take our honeymoon in alaska.

she's a cold sissy though.

AK?

[ocd]

AK's in the wrong hemisphere for that now, ALB, but she could tell you about it.

"I don't know if this is an actual custom, but in the show they explained that if couples knocked boots under the Northern Lights, they'd have a baby...."

i don't want no babies though!

(not yet)

[mpyre]

I thought this thread would be about the recent (sad) news stories about auroras.

Apparently, they're going to disappear since there seems to be a change in the atmosphere/electromagnetic field.

Sad....

WHAT?

[fmstlr]

Originally posted by ocd
AK's in the wrong hemisphere for that now, ALB, but she could tell you about it.

she gets aurora australis

[fmstlr]

Originally posted by atomiclotusbox
i want to see it really bad.

anybody know if they happen in june?

i'm trying to convince my fiance that we should take our honeymoon in alaska.

she's a cold sissy though.

There's very little dark time in Alaska in June.

crap.

[fmstlr]

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/cgi-bin/predict.cgi

[AlaskanKiwi]

My heart aches to see the Nothern Lights right now, as I can imagine they're probably out and shinning! You can usually tell in the day if the skies are clear, cold and if there's a lot of static. In my opinion the nothern parts of the state of Alaska are the best, around the Artic Circle and Fairbanks for me (just for sentimental reasons) but also because the colours are different there than say in Southeast Alaska (where I lived).

On the odd occasion if you're lucky you can see them a bit early. The last time I saw them was in May on Mother's Day around 3am on my home drunk with some mates from New Zealand and Australia. That night they were shades of green and they were dancing behind the mountains above. I also saw them again in mid September (rare). Sometimes if you listen very carefully you can hear a buzzing sound - it's amazing. While on business in Norway the same crew and I noticed them a few winters back. I used to get a bit frightened, mostly overwhelmed and in the last two occasions it was just so romantic (miss you Mr. R).

In Antartica and the southern part of New Zealand you get what we call the "Southern Lights" (as fmstlr mentioned).

[fightgenie]

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/images/aurora/jan.curtis/images/janc_011.jpg

[fightgenie]

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/images/aurora/jan.curtis/images/janc_034.jpg