30 Mar 2001 Aurora Report

by Joe Fragola


I was out last night (Friday, 30 March) at a public star party run by the San Jose Astronomical Association. I was talking to one of the members about her Orion XT10 since I have one on order and wanted to know more about its performance.

I noticed a reddish/pinkish glow in the northern sky. At first I thought it was light pollution, but then others noticed it and shouts of "aurora" and "northern lights" could be heard. My observing location was about an hour and a half south of Robert Leyland's location in Novato, CA. San Jose is at 37 degrees latitude. Robert Leyland's description is pretty much what I saw from San Jose.

Some of the fainter, more subtle aspects of the display were not visible from the light polluted sky I was looking through. Also, the red/pink component was not visible extending all the way from the northern sky across the zenith into Leo.

This aurora was definitely a bonus I hadn't expected to see when I headed out to the star party. People were calling it a once in a lifetime event (seeing the auroral display so far south). My wife said the late local news show had received numerous calls to the station from people across San Jose that were witnessing the auroral display. I'm hoping to go out and see the display again Saturday night.