Aurora Borealis
1st Quarter Moon
Located, but not observed through the Aurora: Boötes, Cassiopeia, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Venus
Observation #1:
Location: Stargaze Nova Scotia, near McGrath's Cove Road, Halifax
Date: 2024-10-10
Time: 6:55 PM – 10:10 PM ADT
Equipment: Visual, iPhone 13 Pro Max
Seeing: not recorded
Transparency: not recorded
We drove to Stargaze Nova Scotia and were joined by its proprietor, John Read, as well as Blair MacDonald and 3 other of John's friends; others arrived throughout the evening. He took us along a path that one of his students had made over the summer to a high point overlooking a small lake. En route there were several 360° views of the horizon. Absolutely incredible.
The 'show' began a little after 7:30 PM with faint glimpses of colour to the naked eye; pictures confirmed it had started. A bull frog's croak seems to confirm that was so.
At 8:14 PM, I texted our daughters: "If you aren’t outside, looking up, do so right now. The Aurora are absolutely incredible!!!" We had to laugh at the response: "Oak Ridge Memorial Gardens (graveyard) was the place to be! We were just approaching it as Mom texted to look up. Worked out perfect coming home from a school event! It was the boys first time seeing the northern lights, and my first time being in a packed graveyard at night lol"
|
|
Over the next two hours at Stargaze Nova Scotia, we had an indescribable show of the Aurora! The aurora's corona was indescribably beautiful with its full range of colour visible to the eye - red, yellow, greens, blues and violet. Not only did the 4 of us at our location on site exclaim "oh, wow!" at various times when the aurora was at its fullest, but you could also hear John and Blair closer to the ARO and some children at a nearby cottage.
The wind on the ridge was cool for a period of time but once the wind died down, it was comfortable enough to go without winter mitts. Jerry had 2 cameras taking time-lapse and I had my iPhone in a tripod holder (sometimes) or handheld (most times). It was difficult determining in which direction to look! West? East? North? Straight up? Even the Halifax light dome did not diminish the aurora's intensity.
|
One view that I just loved was looking towards the Moon to see the clouds illuminated so brightly and the aurora's edge seemingly attempting to catch up to it. The image of the Moon was blown because it was so bright compared to all else in the sky. Many other images were captured but do not do justice to what we actually saw. Jerry produced a video of his time-lapse captures via camera and his iPhone 15 Pro Max - https://vimeo.com/1018703128. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Observation #2:
Location: Home
Date: 2024-10-10/11
Time: 11:00 PM – 12:10 PM ADT
Equipment: Visual, iPhone 13 Pro Max
Seeing: not recorded
Transparency: not recorded
We knew there was to be a second show of the aurora and we were far from disappointed when we reached home. Again a 180° view of the aurora but this time it did not extend over our heads as it had at Stargaze Nova Scotia earlier in the evening. So disappointing when it faded to almost nothing just after midnight.
The two photos below were taken at 11:04 PM ADT.
|
|