Beware the solar storm!

Omg this one

https://bsky.app/profile/stim3on.bsky.social/post/3ks67umdvpk26

I can't believe I can't really see anything. London is bullshit.

https://bsky.app/profile/williamcarruthers.bsky.social/post/3ks676dqfse24 says you can see it only with a long exposure

At least it’s clear I guess. Totally overcast most of the NE US.

I went to the beach for a bit and you could see a bit of magenta and light streaks but that was about it, was dying down and I got cold so I came back

gonna mark myself "safe from the triffids" on Twitter

lol I was thinking that while I was sat on the beach. I guess that's me eaten by triffids then

see also

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

could this be the last night of ILX?? stay tuned!

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:jmte4w4x7ukciit6lci6ziau/bafkreid2xyj2jdf4n3hjtbuwys3c5uudf2yy3qhwkzm7a4iyr56aw274a4@jpeg

NE US clearing up. If it looks clear and you live somewhere with low light pollution then try to take a photo or video even if you can't see any lights. the phone might pick something up.

Happening in the US https://bsky.app/profile/rusty.todayintabs.com/post/3ks6l2nn7dk2s

Got some pretty nice pics here in N. Miss. If we have a bloody sky here, it must look like the apocalypse up north.

https://scontent-hou1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438097186_10163272497353709_7300760230610544342_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=ncjcMuMF_usQ7kNvgFQ1fpt&_nc_ht=scontent-hou1-1.xx&oh=00_AYAN3eyfvfqj_X0T0TYDPKN7-k-lfOhmteQ7rz1bYP3fFA&oe=6644BC0E

it is 100% clear here in Oregon, but not yet sunset, will try to take pics

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/what-a-major-solar-storm-could-do-to-our-planet

I posted that upthread. Crazy that a major one is happening so soon after that article.

oops sorry! yeah fascinating article

Cloudy sky down here, but the Mt Wilson tower cam picked up some faint red
https://mas.to/@quartzcity/112420923956459908

Halfway between Antwerp and Brussels? Yeah, no chance.

We had some muted displays in the southern part of the UK. My kid has recently passed his driving test and about midnight we all bundled into his car and went to some local high ground and watched. It had kind of died down by then but still a great experience.

Thoughts with the Icelandic Tourist Board at this difficult time... #NorthernLights

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) May 11, 2024

already encountered two separate truther narratives on this:
i) tales of ppl just posting images they grabbed off GiS
ii) ppl claiming that yr phone's night filter is merely creating artefacts that are fake (same as samsung replacing yr wobbly and blurry image of the moon with their professional never-changed stored image) (on the very true grounds that yrs was just an incompetwnt attempt at what they did earlier its_the_same_picture.jpg)

anyway it didn't reach plymouth and i went to bed despondent but also safe from triffids © koogs

same as samsung replacing yr wobbly and blurry image of the moon with their professional never-changed stored image

Does this happen? That would be annoying.

Last October or November (cold, a weeknight, you had to be a nerd to know about it in advance) when the aurora was visible, we were one of only two cars down at the river to watch it. Last night (warm, Friday night, Met Éireann had talked about it on the national weather forecast), there were crowds out. It felt a little like that bit in Close Encounters when everyone comes to see the spaceships but there are only helicopters. Obviously the "this is how it starts" mantra was going around in my head. Looking up at the incredible birdlike figures in the sky, I could easily imagine how terrifying this could be if you didn't know what was happening.

re the “samsung moon scandal” so-called: i think when you zoomed into the moon in your own picture it supplied detail that your phone could not have achieved -- so not quite unasked but also not really clearly explained (but i'm basing this on discussions in reddit threads, which is perhaps a version of the same crime)

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-galaxy-cameras-combine-super-resolution-technologies-with-ai-to-produce-high-quality-images-of-the-moon/

the Galaxy camera uses Scene Optimiser’s deep learning-based AI detail enhancement engine to eliminate any remaining noise and enhance the details of the image even furtherp

the shit it makes up would differ depending on the position of the person taking the photo. did it even go that far or did they all just end up with a default north american moon?

The generous interpretation is that Samsung’s process captures blurry details in the original photograph and then upscales them using AI. This is an established technique that has its problems ... But as the Reddit tests show, Samsung’s process is more intrusive than this: it doesn’t just improve the sharpness of blurry details — it creates them. It’s at this point that I think most people would agree the resulting image is, for better or worse, fake.

It's true about the auroras that they look much more colorful on a cellphone camera than to the naked eye (not that they aren't amazing to the naked eye, but my iPhone definitely picked up the fainter ones before my (old) eyes could)

Stay frosty. Good chance of a repeat. https://bsky.app/profile/philplait.bsky.social/post/3ksa6wkpqyk2c

Ok so if there's a repeat. What is optimal time? I still don't think I am gonna see anything but will try. Also, why didn't anyone know about this until like 2 days ago?? I would have gone somewhere with a better chance of viewing had I know. A friend just happens to be in Scotland and holy shit her pics were amazing.

Yeah, but you could head up to Scotland and it could be completely clouded over. Our met office only started talking about it when they were pretty sure the skies would be completely clear.

Ah ok - maybe that's why I hadn't heard anything. I have to sign up for bluesky so I can see your pic! Will do now.

Best time per that bsky post: “A lot of folks are asking if we'll get a repeat of last night's aurora for tonight. No guarantees, but the storm is ongoing so my guess is yes! If it's clear, wait until it's dark (1.5 hours or after sunset) and look north (unless you're in Oz/NZ/etc then look south).”

“To be clear you can *start* looking after sunset. The closer to midnight it is the better it tends to be, but not necessarily. Go out every half hour or so to check!”

I could have read the link before asking. Sorry but thank you. I will be looking from west London!

seems like the best time here at least was about 11:30. I went out about 11:50 and caught a bit but by 12:30 it had either faded or was covered by clouds/mist

9 p.m. was peak for us last night (US CDT)

No way I was going anywhere last night, I was in bed before the sun even went down. Apparently it was visible from castle hill! I’m going out for a wander now but it’s a little cloudy

Weird to think ppl go on special trips to northern climes to see this thing & it was visible up the road last night

I might have a drive out to the countryside to have a look tonight.

that's our plan

a bar-guy in the pub i was in earlier was telling some tourists that it was totally visible in plymouth if you went to a headland (which has several such things, tho i don't live on one and have no plan to be on one later)

just been up to the local hillfort and saw NOTHING but it was nice being up there with loads of other small groups of vaguely excited people all stumbling around in the dark. on the downside, I've come home with that rotten Renaissance song stuck in my head

https://i.ibb.co/m88hR8H/Screenshot-20240511-225857-You-Tube.jpg

Yeah similarly I don’t think it’s gonna happen here tonight but it’s a nice atmos, also the city looks nice at night from up here, the night sky also (in a normal way), I’m listening to Gas

Oh perfect soundtrack

Yeah it’s nice, would have been amazing if it went along with actually seeing the lights. I think it’s a definite no for tonight tho, far from the “mostly clear” my weather app claimed the moon is almost completely obscured by clouds

ppl have excitedly been taking flash photos of the empty sky all evening, I guess they’re gonna colour it in later

Ooh we forgot to go there to do cheese rolling with babybels this year, must pencil it in for next weekend.

Sun chilled out. Nothing tonight afaict.

NW of uk, around Manchester but not too close to main cities, my friend managed to catch some of it. I only saw a few wisps of uncoloured lights. Still all fascinating though.

Also, just wanted to note the top of the bump of this thread...

twenty years pass...

cor blimey!

Nice piece in Nature about the solar storms, solar maximum and effects on gps, satellites etc

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01432-7

The solar storm interrupted radio and GPS communications across the globe. The broadband internet connection provided by Starlink, a division of the aerospace firm SpaceX — a service that relies on more than 5,000 satellites — reported some temporary degradation in the quality of its signals. That could be because of communications disruptions or because the storm changed the density of Earth’s atmosphere and created drag on the satellites, space-weather physicist Tamitha Skov posted on the social-media platform X (formerly Twitter).

In anticipation of the extreme solar activity, electrical-grid operators had taken protective measures — geomagnetic storms can induce extra electrical currents in the grid, causing power cuts. New Zealand’s electrical-transmission service temporarily turned off some circuits around the country to prevent equipment damage.

NASA said on 10 May that it foresaw no threat to the four US and three Russian astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Three people are aboard China's Tiangong space station, but there have been no reports of precautionary actions taken there either.