September 26 Auroras?
Grand Rapids
This is about as close to zero aurora as you can get without actually being zero. It was a dark, mostly clear evening with no moon, which would be ideal for seeing auroras. The solar wind conditions were not quite as good as two nights ago, when there was a decent display, but they weren't far off. I monitored the ACE and GOES satellite data, which indicated visible auroras might appear soon, but I vowed not to use camera "test shots" to tell me whether the aurora was there. I would press the camera shutter button only when I saw a brightening on the northern horizon. This I managed to do, but I wonder whether the brightening was more my imagination. Regardless, a loop through the images reveals the characteristic light variation typical of auroras and a little bit of structure as well. The image below is enhanced as much as possible in an attempt to reveal what little there was.
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| Exceptionally minimal aurora of September 26. |