Red-eye flight observing

by Peter Natscher


Hi Stacy,

I'm glad that you were able to see the latest big display of Aurora's in North America last Friday evening. I saw it also from my house, up here in Medford, Oregon, as I awoke at 3 am on Sat. morning last week. I was on my way outside to grab my first a.m. observing,with my 20" Starmaster, of Jupiter and Saturn when as I looked up at the sky from my deck to see what the seeing was like, there appeared a fantastically tall fan-shaped curtain of blue-green light. It towered from the northern horizon all the way up past Ursa Minor fanning outwards as it went up. It's size was 45 deg. wide by 50 deg. high. I could see it changing shape in just a few minutes of watching. At first, I though this fantastic light was a multitude of search lights advertising some huge event, but that northerly direction has no light sources but the Cascade Mountains. What a treat! That ended up being the best thing I saw that early morning. By 4am, it had diminished. I was lucky to have seen it. The local newspaper mentioned this aurora a few days afterward.

Peter Natscher
Medford, Oregon