Where/when to see the Northern Lights tonight?

[Blue Oval84]

Well I tried the car park on the coast at Seaham earlier and not a visible sign of anything, was just wondering if 8pm was too early?

What time should I be heading out if I want to take a gander? Also, dumb question, but I should be looking north yeah? Or is out to sea ok?

[Eric Mc]

We have a science forum for this sort of stuff now.

Never seen them myself and being "sahn sarf" I dobn't expect to this evening. I would expect looking towards the northern horizon would yield better results as the solar wind particles enter the upper atmosphere towards the North Magnetic Pole.

[GTIR]

North Norfolk.

Dumbass.

[pip t]

It's very unlikely you'll see anything at the moment. You need to look north, yes, and generally very low on the horizon from this country. There were displays of aurora visible from the northern areas of the UK last night, but there is much less activity tonight - this link shows activity levels:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html

Note - the blue/orange/red areas are not areas where aurora ARE taking place - its where the activity levels are such that they COULD take place.

More likely tomorrow night/ the night after - the sun has just shot out another CME heading our way, which is expected to arrive at the Earth late afternoon tomorrow.

It is very very rare to see aurora from the southern half of the UK. Possible, but rare. Activity needs to be at a very high level for that to happen.

[sneijder]

I'm looking out of my window due north in Oslo right now.

Nothing.

[Blue Oval84]

Thanks guys, I won't bother looking for any tonight then

[WestYorkie]

I had a look out tonight but couldn't see anything.

Found this though
http://www.auroraskystation.com/live-camera/9/

It's the end of the world! The reaper is coming for us.


Taken from the Aurora cam.

Edited by WestYorkie on Tuesday 24th January 03:15

[Eighteeteewhy]

Should be about tonight, just hope it clears up a bit.

[KB_S1]

Foggy and miserable here over the last couple of days.
If it was nice and clear I would have been tempted to go for a drive North.

[Zad]

These are looking pretty quiet at the moment (7:20pm)

http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html