I posted an image of sunspot group AR3664/AR3668 here:
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...e.php?a=317102
Aurora predictions were fantastic but examination of the ECMFW cloud model on Saturday was grim. Out here on the slopes and plains, that model is extremely accurate. I host groups out here several times a year and use that to postpone if clouds are predicted or give the go ahead for people to travel out here if predicted clear. Over the past 3 years and about a dozen events, I've never hosted people here and had them sit around in cloudy weather. Same for my own work. Always know whether it's worth setting up or not.
Based on the model prediction, I decided to take a 400km each way trip from Young out west to the Hay Plains driving out on Saturday afternoon, returning Sunday morning to escape the weather in the east. I left at 3pm arriving at 7pm. This allowed me to see whether the clearing change had arrived or whether I needed to keep driving.
Had I lived in Sydney or Canberra, I probably would have baulked due to the greater distances. I drove through pretty continuous rain for the first 3 hrs and was beginning to question my decision when the rain suddenly stopped as I was driving into Narrandera. As I drove west on the Sturt Hwy, the cloud thinned. I could see the glow faintly through cloud and brighter through gaps. When the cloud was sufficiently dispersed, I found a roadside rest area with a clear south horizon and set up.
I posted a selection of aurora images from my western NSW trip here:-
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...98&postcount=1
and here:-
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...50&postcount=7
In 2015, I was lucky enough to see a bright Kp5 display from a farm stay outside Trømso in 2015. The display was so bright, it lit up the landscape and it was a Phoenix type display(see attached image-green aurora).
Saturday night's event from Bortle 1 skies midway between Narrandera and Hay was really spectacular and special. It was green near the horizon, with a red arc and vertical pillars that pulsated varying from white (scotopic vision) to red (photopic vision). Some of the intensity pulsations in the vertical pillars had frequencies greater than 1Hz. See image showing pillars and red sky.
Such events only occur about once every 20 years so doing the maths, this might have been my last opportunity from NSW.
cheers
Joe
the whole weekend so a bucket-list item missed.
