Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsI can't believe I was the only one at the ball field last night. The auroral display was simply breathtaking. I don't think I have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to describe how awesomely beautiful it was. At 6:00 pm there was a large light dome in the northern sky, stretching from northeast to northwest and rising above the trees, about half way up to Polaris. Suddenly, at about 6:03, the entire northeast sky turned a brilliant red, almost up to Cassiopeia, while the entire top fringe of the dome was brilliant pink to red. To the northwest, pillars of white light were dancing in the sky. This lasted about 12 minutes with the red spreading west and the white pillars reaching higher than Polaris; then it faded and only the light dome was left. I thought the show was over and started to run the alignment procedure for my mount computer, when suddenly the whole northern sky, over the entire length of the ballfield, was a brilliant red, higher than Polaris, with white pillars dancing across the entire array. All I could do was sit down in my chair, watch it, and say, "Thank you God!" This display lasted for 15-20 minutes in its full glory, then slowly faded back to the light dome which now was higher than Polaris. There was a period of about 10 minutes with only sporadic activity, a tinge of pink here, a pillar of white there. The glowing dome stretched even higher into the sky. Then there was one final glorious burst of color and pillars of light. Bright red slowly moving from east to west across the northern sky, almost to the zenith, accompanied agin by dancing pillars of white light. As this display faded Steve Long arrived and we watched auroral activity, mostly white with an occasional touch of pink, stretch as far south in the sky as Mars. I hope you all got a chance to see something of this fantastic show. Dave |