Pokegama Lake Auroras
August 27, 2015
Well, the solar wind was a little more interesting tonight than last night. Since the moon was full and the skies somewhat smoky, I decided to skip the high contrast locations to the north of town and went to the south of town instead because the city lights don't matter as much when the moon is full.
The oval was rather high in the sky-- maybe a bit higher than I expected-- and soon, a substorm erupted. When most people see auroras, it's during a substorm, when the auroras suddenly get brighter and start dancing around. They're present a lot of other times, too, but they're harder to notice if they're not as bright and not moving.
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| The substorm starts. |
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| The substorm intensifies. |
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| The auroras now fill most of the northern half of the sky. |
The auroras rapidly faded into a plain oval configuration, and it was still early, so I decided to hang around for the next substorm. That substorm occurred a bit later than I counted on. In the meantime, the skies became a bit smokier, and the moon climbed higher into the sky, rendering the contrast on the next substorm a bit less than I would have liked.
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| The beginning of the second substorm. |
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| A slightly wider view of the second substorm. |
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