Did you see the Aurora??

[Debbie]

Last night I was up until waaaay late. Eldon and I kept looking for the possibility of the Aurora Borealis. I saw a newsreport that said our area might get a glimpse and for once, we *GASP! have clear skies!!!

I saw one of the best displays of the Milky Way, and watched the moon rise but no Aurora. What about where you live? Did you get to see it?? What colours did you get to see in the sky?

They say we have possibly 5 more days to see it, so I guess I'll be napping in the daytime and up at night I wanna see!!!!

[Fi]

Nope. Keep hoping I will one day!

[harveydales]

Me neither, but then we're in southern Spain right now so out of range.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using proboards

[nedales]

Looked and looked last night--apparently just too far west as the Cape and even Vermont had great sitings. Tonight is rain but tomorrow...

[mickey]

No Some parts of the UK saw it friday night I believe.
Hoping to go to Iceland in Feb in the hope of seeing them!

[colmworthdales]

Nothing here in Bedfordshire, but I think I did see it once in Maldon (on the Essex coast) a long time ago. Will never forget the way the northern horizon had pale turquoise-green layers hours after sunset. Very eerie.

[Debbie]

I've only seen the aurora once, and that was back in the winter of '80- '81. Talk about magical! Of course it had much to do with the massive (three foot) snow drifts everywhere and we lived in the middle of nowhere at the time, so no streetlights or lights period to ruin it. My mum woke us kids up, bundled us all up in our layers and coats (I was only like 10 or 11 at the time) and then took us out in the snow around 10:30 at night.

Mum was always strict with bedtime being 8pm, and then 9pm, so being up that late was such a treat. Plus, she let us stay out there for as long as we wanted. We could look and gasp at the lights in the sky and romp in the snow and simply take it all in for as long as we wanted. We only came inside when we were kidsicles and simply falling asleep standing up. I'll never forget it, and I'll never forget how much she wanted to stay out and see them too. It turned out she hadn't seen them since she was a little girl in the '50s, so she was thrilled to be sharing them with her own children

The ones we saw back then were vivid blues and greens and purples. There may have been a few pinks/reds on the rims, but I don't recall any yellow colours at all, really only the sheets of the blues and greens. I've never seen anything like it before or since, and can easily understand the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard. It's very moving and certainly a bucket list item

So I was bitterly disappointed to stay up way late, only to see nothing, but taunted on Saturday morning with beautiful internet photos at least over the weekend, I could see more accurate forecasts. From what I could see on the globe, I don't think any of us could see them? Maybe the Raspotniks up in upper America could, but we sure couldn't out here. Ah well, it was worth at least looking for them

[cadeby]

No chance for me in France but I'm lucky to have seen the Aurora a couple of times. Once in Banff, Alberta - I was 18 years old, wilderness camping with a multi-national group of backpackers. We were all slightly drunk and some of them were smoking wacky-backy, so you can imagine the comments

However, the most surreal experience for me was seeing the lights from a plane as we flew over Greenland. Beautiful.

On my Bucket List is this "hotel" in Finland. I want to see the Lights from one of their glass igloos. The cost is a bit prohibitive though

www.kakslauttanen.fi/en/accommodation/#glass-igloos

[dalesnfellfan]

I've never seen the lights, but Helen's account of seeing them from an airplane reminds me of the most surreal, beautiful, frightening but awe inspiring thing I've ever seen, it was while flying over the top of Pakistan in a corker of a thunderstorm, with gigantic flashes of lightning every second all around the plane. It seemed to just go on and on, you couldn't hear the thunder of course but the plane was being buffeted about and kept dropping dramatically, people were screaming and the lady behind me kept crying 'were all going to die'. I was frightened but just could not take my eyes off it, the colours were beautiful, purples and yellow and white against a navy blue backdrop, it will stay with me forever.

[Debbie]

That would have been gorgeous to fly through the Northern Lights

As for the lightning and planes, I've been through several rip roarers too, they really are a sight, and better than any amusement park ride for a thrill factor.