Watching the Skies

[xtremeroswellia]

The auroras seen in Alaska, Canada, Russia, and southern Scandinavia this week will be not as extensive as those we will see when the sun begins to be more active in 2008. Watch the aurora forecast web site for updates. Auroras are more active around equinox, and high-speed streams from the sun are sweeping Earth now and for the rest of this week. Auroras may reach the Northern States of the US, Scotland, Southern Scandinavia, Tasmania, and Southern New Zealand.

There will be an extra show for those of you living on the west coast of the US and Mexico, Hawaii, and the eastern Pacific region. A meteor event called the Aurigids is predicted to begin at around 11hr Universal Time on September 1, 2007, and last for an hour. There is predicted a meteor rate of up to 200 per hour originating in Auriga. That constellation will be in the NE sky for most of the viewing region. The moon will be bright and the sun will rise shortly after the display, but the colorful traces of this special meteor shower will be worth the effort to see them.

The prediction may be up to 20 minutes early or late, so Alaskans should start watching the western sky by 02:30 am AKDT, West Coasters by 03:30 PDT, and Hawaians by 12:30 am.

--from an email newsletter in Alaska