[Bushwacker]

A group of us hikers 4-wheeled up to the top of Alpine Baldy last night in hopes of catching a view of the Perseid meteor shower. Arrived shortly before dark and set up to see the event. The five of us saw an average of between 10-15 meteors an hour. Around 11:00 pm, I noticed a substantial piece of the northern horizon lit up with wavering lights. Over the next 5-10 minutes it grew in intensity. Everyone in our group saw it as it weakened and strengthened over the next half hour. We had never seen the Aurora Borealis and it was an extra attraction which concluded a special night. Did anyone else happen to catch the action last night? BW

[MtnGoat]

pretty cool! hope you had a good show. The geomagnetic data from last nite shows the earths magnetic field developed a strong southern component over the last day or so and it was very strongly south when you saw your show. Typically a southern vector is one of the required conditions for northern auroras, along with a relatively high solar wind density. this is the chart I use.... Bz is the magnetic field polarity and when it is below the dotted line conditions are good, high density, speed and temperature help too... http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ace/MAG_SWEPAM_24h.html Here's the parent site I linked from, has other great links and info for meteors, auroras, satellite sightings, etc. http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Ice Girl]

Good second link of Metor showers ect... i am not sure exactly what i am looking at with the first. Thanks for the link. Ice Girl

[MtnGoat]

This site has a more direct way of showing you what is in progress with aurora, with polar maps. There are maps for N and S hemispheres and one page has java animations so you can see the activity over the last day or so. http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html

[Bushwacker]

Just checked out those sites! Pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for the info. BW

[None entered]

The aurora are the only thing I miss about Alaska.