I received an e-mail alert earlier this evening ‘warning’ of a Solar Storm that promises to trigger an enhanced Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) event for tomorrow, April 20th.

According to the forecast the peak of the storm should take place at appromixately 02:00 UTC which will coincide nicely with overnight flights that depart the US and head for Europe.

Here is  a map predicting the intensity of the event:

a map of the earth

The Northern Lights should light up the skies over the North Atlantic.

 

A few weeks ago I was on a flight from Paine to Frankfurt and had the thrill of experiencing the Northern Lights for the first time in my life.   They are worth staying up for!

The photos below are a little blurry, but with exposure requirements and the speed of the aircraft, this is the best I could do.

If you have a point-n-shoot or DSLR, you’ll want to set your exposure to 1-2 seconds and set your ISO to the 3000-5000 area and hold your camera FIRMLY against the window.   However, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to experiment with your settings during the event to find the perfect combo for your camera set up.   Using your phone to take pictures will probably not yield good results.

Without a camera you will still be able to see them if they are intense.  If they are weaker, they will look like a thin stream of white clouds.  At least thats what they looked like to me until the camera showed otherwise.

Hopefully your photos will be better than mine!

 

a night sky with stars

a green and purple sky with stars