wow - best geomag storm in ~20 years!

 

That's a kP index of 9, class G5. Pretty much top of the charts! 

The yellow highlight marks the time when we were outside.

8:35 - sunset is very soon. The rest of the world is having a fine time; now our turn is coming!!

10:00 - not really dark yet, but photos already show the colors. Amazing.

11:00 - full blast, nearly all-sky coverage. Even visually we can tell green from deep red areas. Even areas around the moon are showing the glow, due west of us. To the NE it looks like an early green dawn is breaking.

We shut down about 12:20am, 8:20UTC. Two cameras taking dozens of images at different settings, in attempts to catch both colors coverage and detail in the curtains. I'd never thought such coverage would happen at 46° latitude. Photos are coming in from Florida Keys and many other southerly sites. Wow!

the Smokey Times - 2021 edition

The dry spring and absurdly hot week in late June jump-started the 2021 fire season. We have had decent local sky clarity until now, but an approaching storm from the SW has pulled an amber blanket over us. It's fairly thin and up high so no smell of smoke, but not a pretty sight. Thunderstorms will no doubt accompany the welcome rain this weekend, so we must wait and see the costs and benefits of the storm. Looks like Roseburg is finding out right as this image was taken!

It's clearly worse on the east side of Oregon, as the Dixie fire in northern Cal has just swallowed a small town* and found other adjacent fuels for a major flare-up. The Bootleg fire down by Paisley is still the country's largest but it is getting under better control.

Among other summer casualties, the 2021 Oregon Star Party had its permit pulled by the Ochoco NF - just too risky this year to gather a bunch of people in such a flammable environment. That's happening more frequently over the years, and whatever the human climate impacts may be it's becoming clearer that August isn't ideal for scheduling large gatherings on public land. Either the location or the timing will need to be seriously examined for the 2022 event, it seems.

* a map of the area, showing Greenville (mostly destroyed yesterday) and its proximity to Paradise (destroyed in the 2018 Camp fire).

Fun with photos (Mars edition)

 I spent about an hour puzzling out the Perseverance Rover's location tonight. News reports gave me enough data.. but on my phone it took a bit of sleuthing and several MRO magnifications to get it right!