Aurora Alert

Yes, That would make sense!

Cloudy here, no sightings yet.

I've never even seen an aurora.

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Last night on msn we where discussing the possiblity of an aurora being visible as the auroal oval was in the red and covering all of the UK and at times northern Europe. The sky cleared before 01.00 and i went outside and once i got dark adapted i seen an aurora present very low in the north in the form of a very faint blue band 7* above the horizon however it was not that much brighter than the normal background sky brightness that close the the horizon. After some time the activity increased and i could see at least 5 vertical green beams at the same time moving swiftly to the east. These where approx 25* above the horizon extending to the vicinity of Capella. The 7* high band was the same height but now a green colour also. The display had died out within one hour.

I decided to do a tour of the sky while i was there. I borrowed Conors 4.5" TAL1 (thanks again Conor ), attached my Telrad to it and carried it through the bars out to the middle of the pitch. I observed Jupiter, Saturn, Castor, U Cephei, delta Cephei, RCrB, TCrB, Double cluster, M34, M44, NGC1528, M27, M71, M29, M39, M56, M57, M10, M12, M13, M92, M5, M94, M63 and C/2004 Q2 Machholz. I spotted 5 meteors...1 sporadic, 2 virginids and 2 Lyrids. I also learned the positions of 10 new 5th mag stars in the milkway within Vulpecula so i can put more of the night sky to memory. The milkyway in Cygnus was amazing, it looked like a cloud complete with the Cygnus dark rift and other dark nebulae within the dust clouds..wonderful. seeing= 9/10, Trans= 8/10

Sounds like you were up all night Martin.

Out for an hour or so then up before dawn. I like to make the most of every clear night!