On the Denali web cam...

See that spec of green up there?




About 30 min later...

Probably just a Rolling Rock sign outside a bar in Russia.

Oregon180 wrote:Probably just a Rolling Rock sign outside a bar in Russia.

Hahaha. I think you're onto something.

Or the Nav light from a Northwest flight that's supposed to be on short final into Milwaukee.

Zane,

According to the forecast chances for aurora viewing last night were very low. Never seen a point specific feature like that before either. At minimum they are usually linear or a "beam" presence if not waves.

That camera is located at the owner's house (of TAT) at a window so it could be some artifact from artifical light from a porch or inside etc. hitting the lens at a strange angle.

Or hell it could be the aurora

Looks like the moon to me. It's there in the daylight too.

Nope, it's Aurora Reflectalis.

This may be hard to comprehend for those without electricity or windows, but webcams are often placed in front of a window. Most of them have a green LED power light on them. Get the picture?

Actually, Zane, the color's pretty accurate, but the small, isolated extent of the display is pretty atypical. You'd usually see a lot more of a band, even for a smaller display.

Incidentally, the great images you see in print often benefit from a time-delay exposure, even of just a few seconds- more shutter time means more vibrant color on the recording media. The instantaneous vision of the human eye, and also web cams I'm guessing, means that what we see with the eye is often a little duller than the vibrant photos that get published.

We see 'em here in SE a couple of times a year when it isn't cloudy. What is incredible to me is the "illusion" (for lack of a better term), of hearing it. It is a very, very cool thing.

gb

How about a "flash of green" you sometimes get usually in the tropics right when the sun dips below the horizon???

I think the webcam LED reflection is the best explanation so far.

GumpAir wrote:Or the Nav light from a Northwest flight that's supposed to be on short final into Milwaukee.

You guys should team up and do stand-up. I'll bet you're a hoot after a couple of beers @ Johnson Creek!

I see the Northern Lights all the time and never seen any that look like that. It's a little early in the year to. But I have seen the moon look like that lots of times.

It was still there last night too. LED reflection sounds about right.

chickenair wrote:I see the Northern Lights all the time and never seen any that look like that. It's a little early in the year to. But I have seen the moon look like that lots of times.

That's cuz the moon is made out of green cheese!!!!!!!

About....

....20 some years ago we recieved a midnight phone call from a neighbor lady who was known to down a couple of six packs of beer every night. Her panicked voice pleaded with me to go out on our deck and look at the sky. "There is a giant UFO hovering over your house!" she stammered. "O.K. Helen" I said. "I'll take a look." Rolling my eyes and grumbling about "Helen being out of it again"....I stumbled out onto the deck and into the darkness. Understand....we live in rural Missouri deep in a forest...a mile or more off of a public road. It is quiet and very dark out here. Some might say spooky!

HOLY SHIT! I nearly went down on my knees! The sky was swirling with gigantic orange and yellow clouds....constantly changing shape and color. Didn't look like a UFO to me. But it was the scariest thing that I had ever seen in the sky. My first thoughts were that a nuclear war had begun, followed by thoughts of the "BOOK of REVELATIONS". Maybe it really was Armageddon. Pehaps that old Fire and Brimstone preacher from my youth was right. As I tried to calm myself a more "rational " thought occured that perhaps the Space Shuttle, which had been launched that day, had exploded and was spreading debris throughout the heavens.

Finally I called the FSS...Flight Service Station.... at Vichy Missouri(back when we had such things) and reported my strange sightings. The FSS agent didn't laugh as I had expected. "It is the Aurora Borealis"...he said. It is being seen all the way from the east coast to west of the Mississippi. Airline Pilots all over the eastern third of the nation are seeing it. From everyone's vantage point it appears to be right over their heads.

Relieved that the end of the world was not eminent...I went back out onto the deck and watched the incredible display until it fully dissipated.

Before and since I have seen the Northern Lights numerous times. On rare occassion I have seen them in the midwest. Often I have observed dazzling displays while flying across the northern tier of the U.S. and during flights to and from Alaska. Usually they appeared as glowing curtains of green, blue, yellow or red....spiking well into the sky, from the horizon. But never before or since have I seen anything like the huge, orange, swirling, light clouds ....of that midnight encounter.

Had I been a primative man of eons past.....after that experience....I would have built an altar and spent my remaining mortal years worshiping orange clouds. It was a very powerful experience.

bob

One of the many benefits of being a cargo pilot living/flying north of the Arctic Circle was the nightly show during the winter months. Many a night flight hour was spent staring out the windshield filled with amazement and wonder. Often times, with snow covering the ground to reflect the light back up, I could turn the panel/radio lights completely off, and just sit in the cockpit bathed in the glow. Magic stuff...

Gump

My dad told me he saw the aurora from Corvallis when he was a little kid. Bob your story reminded me of that.


Photo: Aktahoe1

http://www.aurorawebcam.com/index.php/news


http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/

I think Grandma always said, its just the sun reflecting off the ice cap...