AURORA WARNING 20th Feb 2006

[Naz]

Hi peops, just an early warning of possible aurora activity tonight 20th Feb.

Just been out enjoying the best night this year so far, and there is a faint glow in the Northern sky, at the moment only about 10 degrees above horizon, and fairly faint.

Will keep you all informed.

nabban

[OXO]

Thanks for the heads up, cloudy at the moment but i will be keeping a keen eye out for it...

James

[Naz]

Update as promised.

The activity is very low key, though at one stage there were a few rays shooting up to about 25 degrees, these were also quite faint.

Clouded over now, but it looks if it wont last long

nabban

[Naz]

Well folks it cleared up but the Aurora came to nought! Now isin't that surprising!

The sky just kept on faintly glowing in the North, and occassionally sending up faint rays. By midnight, it had all but finished.

Still I had a good nights star hopping. Managed to get a decent look at Saturn, unfortunately my gear is not up to resolving the Cassini division.

Next on to M42, the easy one, Looking through the old frac, (3"), the nebulosity was visible with the 25mm ep. Switching over to the 80mm f5, the views were much better with the same ep.

Next went to the Plieades, with the 80mm for a short time in a moment of good seeing I thought that I had detected some of the nebulosity around the main stars?

I stuck mainly with the 80mm for the rest of the evening looking at M31, M33, sweeping around Cassiopia down to Otion just star hopping.

Had a quick go at Mars with the 3" frac, dissapointing, just a reddish blob with the 2X barlow and 9mm Kellner (206X). Pushing my luck there.

Could not believe it, apart from the odd period of broken cloud, clear skies and good seeing. then at about midnight, high thin cloud that reduced the seeing to poor. Time for bed.

nabban