Aurora from San Jose

by Mark Wagner, Phil Chambers, Richard Crisp, Glenn Edens, Richard Ozer, Robert Leyland, Bob Czerwinski, Richard Navarrete, William G. Schultz

Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:33:54 -0800 (PST) Mark Wagner

If you can, get out and look right now ... 10:30 pm NNW. Bright pink aurora, shifted from NNE to NNW as we watched. Very cool!

23:02:36 Richard Ozer

I was up at the Chabot observatory at the Telescope Makers' Workshop and although I was accused of smoking too much cerium oxide, I was convinced that it was the Aurora I was seeing. Got a good view from the roof of the building... Alternating deep red and magenta (unusual for an aurora) and occasional flashes of green. Remarkable!

23:02:56 Phil Chambers

Well, I walked down the street a couple of houses for a north view and there was a pink glow in the big dipper from my perspective. Over a few minutes it seemed to ebb and flow a little. Not sure that was it as it was very high and seemed to go to zenith occasionally. Moving very slowly.

The lower north direction from here is the peninsula in all of its power wasting glory.

23:04:05 Richard Crisp

Initially I looked at about 10:37pm and the sky was an eerie pink. then I went in to get the wife and it was somewhat diminished

I could see a pinkish sky about 10:45 or so. It shifted westerly. It is really faint and had it not been brought to my attention I may have not noticed it.

As of 11pm, it seems pretty well gone for now.

23:11:23 Glenn Edens

Mark, thanks for the heads up! It is way impressive here in the hills of Redwood City. Shifting positions in a much broader area of the sky than I would have imagined and going from pink to very red. Centered around Ursa Major but very large, maybe 1/6 of the sky?

23:53:27 Mark Wagner

Amazingly, reports are coming in from as far south as our buddies in Sonoita Arizona. For those of you who don't know, that's just one taco north of the border. What an aurora!

01:51:59 Robert Leyland

As I was watching it, I kept thinking to myself, "I sure hope the guys at Dino are enjoying this, and not getting upset at the Aurora ruining their deep sky viewing :-)"

03:12:46 Bob Czerwinski

Indeed! It's about 3:00am, and I just returned home to San Jose after making a run up to Mt. Hamilton. As I passed through Halls Valley, a pink-to-red sky glow was very evident to the NE, but by the time I hit the top of the hill, it was certainly clear that I had missed the night's peak. I parked just off of Hwy 130, and then walked up the road to Lick Observatory. The sky was still pink in the area along the N-NE horizon from Cepheus to Cygnus, but faded rapidly. I remained in the parking lot for about an hour, but nothing else materialized. Just before leaving, I was joined by a woman who actually lives on the mountain; her husband is an astronomer. She had first observed the aurora about 9:30pm, with another nice session occurring right around Midnight.

After I get some sleep, I'll definitely have to check the aurora predictions for the next 24-hours.

Sat, 31 Mar 2001 8:42:25 PST Richard Navarrete

I DID go out and saw nothing. Maybe the street lights in my neighborhood were too bright. Was it very obvious?

08:59:10 Mark Wagner

[It was] Very obvious.

Large areas of red sky from near hoizon up into the Dipper's bowl (the dipper was at its highest point at this time). The red would start out in the east, fade there, then appear north, then northwest. This pattern seemed to continue for over an hour. At one point the pinkish glow was so obvious even neighbors with no idea of what to look for were commenting on it.

Later, horizontal blotches of neon green appeared east and west of north, lower in the sky. Sometimes they became quite intense. Jim Everitt and I were in a schoolyard athletic field, in a good dark spot, when this part of the show was taking place. We'd be watching one spot grow and move, and yell "look!" as another appeared in our peripheral vision. The green "sheets" were stunning.

Then we noticed spikes of white, like jet con trails running from the north to south. Sometimes multiple spikes, other times single bright "hard edged" ones.

It was mesmerizing.

I will watch the hockey game tonight, which should end around 9 p.m., probably pick my son up from work (9:15) and heard down to Dino. I plan on staying until between 12 and 1, then heading home (unless it is really unbelievable).

09:20:07 William G. Schultz

There were a few at Coe whose intention was to observe aurorae. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams!

I endured an hour of the worst light pollution from the North I'd ever seen ;). The glow extended well onto Leo. It looked like "El Nuke del Norte". Pinks, reds with green columns extending overhead.

Change my bedding!