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Rare
Aurora in Houston.
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Aurora viewed from South Texas Coast on
March 31, 2001.
View an Article
on the Aurora event of March 31, 2001 from CNN.
Fellow Astronomer and Friend,
Christie Ponder and her account of March 31, 2001. |
Houston
Aurora 2001
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November 2001...viewing number two
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September
2003 Alaska trip leads to several aurora
observations...photos coming soon!
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October 30,
2003
Photographic aurora
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November
20, 2003
Aurora in Brookshire,
Texas.
| I
saw that the geomagnetic storm was still
going on, so I drove to darker skies
west of Houston. I arrived at about 7:15
p.m. (not long after twilight ended) and
scanned the northern sky. The result:
nothing. But after a few minutes of dark
adaptation, I THOUGHT I saw a faint
reddish patch in the northeast (the base
was about 15 degrees off the horizon,
the top of the patch was about 30
degrees off the horizon, and the whole
thing was about 10 degrees wide. It
would brighten and fade over the next
half hour or so.... Even at its
"brightest", this small patch
of light was barely visible. I should
mention that the location was moderately
dark (Milky Way visible but not bright
through Cygnus, Cassiopeia, and Perseus;
M31 easily visible) |
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This
patch of light was so faint (when it was
visible) that I wasn't sure if I was
really seeing it..... so I decided to
take some exposures, figuring
that a long exposure would confirm or
deny my sighting. (I was also inspired
by Chris Schur's reports at http://www.psiaz.com/schur/astro/)
I got my film back and.... yes!!! Not
only did the glow that I thought I saw
show up (the brightest patch in the
pictures) but also lots of pinkish red
glow that I did not see. It was
quite different from the 3 other
displays that I've seen! (easily visible
reddish glows in the northern sky) |
| Exposure
details: I can't give you specific
details on the photos (b/c I didn't keep
track of that) but I can say this: 1.
the exposures were using 28 and 50mm
lenses 2. Exposures ranged from 15 to 90
seconds at f 2.8 to f 4.8 3. The
pictures are directly from the negative
and not corrected in any way..... |
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links
Jan
Curtis Aurora Northern Lights Aurora:
Forecasts and Information
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