Celestia Forums

Thia aurora is probably THE BEST FRICKIN' ONE I'VE EVER SEEN. Started out dull, but now there's pulses of light right above my location that are so bright, the snow looks...strange, and streamers of light around that....and right now I see a ribbon of bright green light snaking from the hills....BEAUTIFUL!!!! Very intense, very VERY beautiful. Never seen one quite like THIS!!!

I wonder if any planets in Celestia add-ons will feature auroras? I'd like to do it on an appropriate world of my creation one day.

Michael Kilderry

I hate you, Drac

We got nothing but cloud here. I still haven't seen an aurora in person

I saw the most intense Northern Lights 15 years ago in Minnesota, but what you're describing sounds just as powerful.

The ones I saw started out dull and static. Like the hands of a clock, you could tell they were moving if you took your eyes off them for a minute and then looked back. But after about an hour, they were bright, filled the entire sky and pulsed rapidly across the sky. They were so bright that when the sky started to brighten from the approaching sunrise, it didn't wash them out. It practically took full sunrise to overpower them.

Your story makes me want to get in my car and drive north!!

I hope you get pictures.

I was in the military north of the polar circle, (near Troms?, Norway)
and I saw the aurora about every second night, often many nights in a row.
At the end, it was almost like "ach, there goes that annoying aurora again." Not much else to see up there except raindeer. You should try to watch the aurora with night vision goggles. It becomes quite intense.

Michael Kilderry wrote:I wonder if any planets in Celestia add-ons will feature auroras?

Michael,

Don Edwards has created a realistic and beautiful Earth texture which
does feature an aurora. See Don's textures HERE.

Take care, Bob

Yes, I saw that soon after I had written that comment, I didn't think auroras would look like a greenish line around the top and bottom of the Earth, I thought it would be more like green lines exteneding down from the poles. I wouldn't know much about auroras because we don't get any in Melbourne, Australia. We do get very interesting clouds and unpredictable weather though.

Michael Kilderry

Michael Kilderry wrote:Yes, I saw that soon after I had written that comment, I didn't think auroras would look like a greenish line around the top and bottom of the Earth

Sorry...

Was just trying to be helpful... Won't bother next time.

I still appreciate you telling me about the addon, it's just that I already saw it before, that's all.

Michael Kilderry

Michael,

I'm somewhat confused by your comment

I didn't think auroras would look like a greenish line around the top and bottom of the Earth, I thought it would be more like green lines exteneding down from the poles.

Do you still think that, or do you realize the errors of your ways?

There are lots of Web sites dedicated to the study of auroras. While individual auroras are essentially random, they do cluster in circles around the magnetic poles. Some good pictures are at http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/fromspace.html

I do understand that I was wrong, I was just saying that I had originally thought that auroras would look different, that's all.

Michael Kilderry