Wednesday 30 December 2009
40th Birthday Pressie
What an amazing day we had. Myself and fellow Breckland astronomical society member John Gionis (link to his blog to your right) Set off at 3.00pm in the pouring rain, anticipation high and nervous at the same time. Our mission as we chose to accept it was to take a little flight in a specially converted 737 fly up to about 32,000 ft and do a few loops around the Orkney Islands to view the most spectacular event of the Aurora Borealis. The trip was arranged through the only company offering such tours http://www.auroraflights.co.uk/
We were treated to talks from "The Sky At Nights" imaging specialist Mr Pete Lawrence and the magazine's reviews editor Mr Paul Money. Pictured Paul Lawrence.
[Photo]The pre-flight presentations were held in Radisson Blu Hotel, Stansted Airport. Paul Money provided a 30 minute talk on the stars and constellations that would be visible during the flight while Pete Lawrence explained the connections between the Sun and the Aurora.The activity predictions for tonight were fairly subdued. The vertical component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), known as Bz, had swung south earlier in the day and this gave us some hope for the flight. If Bz points south, the IMF and Earth's magnetic field can connect and auroral displays are more likely to occur. If Bz is north, the fields oppose one another and the aurora tends to be quiet.During the flight, the stars looked beautifully crisp and clear with Paul Money and Pete Lawrence providing an enthusiastic commentary on what could be seen in terms of the stars, constellations and any auroral activity outside the plane. Fortunately, on this occasion, the southerly Bz did work for us and a display was seen. We did make a small course correction by climbing a bit higher and travelling a little futher up to the Faroe Islands at 62°00’N. Although rays and curtains were not very evident this evening, the display did show a lot of horizontal banding and this was seen to change throughout the flight. Pete attempted to photograph the aurora and a couple of his images are shown here.
We were treated to talks from "The Sky At Nights" imaging specialist Mr Pete Lawrence and the magazine's reviews editor Mr Paul Money. Pictured Paul Lawrence.
[Photo]The pre-flight presentations were held in Radisson Blu Hotel, Stansted Airport. Paul Money provided a 30 minute talk on the stars and constellations that would be visible during the flight while Pete Lawrence explained the connections between the Sun and the Aurora.The activity predictions for tonight were fairly subdued. The vertical component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), known as Bz, had swung south earlier in the day and this gave us some hope for the flight. If Bz points south, the IMF and Earth's magnetic field can connect and auroral displays are more likely to occur. If Bz is north, the fields oppose one another and the aurora tends to be quiet.During the flight, the stars looked beautifully crisp and clear with Paul Money and Pete Lawrence providing an enthusiastic commentary on what could be seen in terms of the stars, constellations and any auroral activity outside the plane. Fortunately, on this occasion, the southerly Bz did work for us and a display was seen. We did make a small course correction by climbing a bit higher and travelling a little futher up to the Faroe Islands at 62°00’N. Although rays and curtains were not very evident this evening, the display did show a lot of horizontal banding and this was seen to change throughout the flight. Pete attempted to photograph the aurora and a couple of his images are shown here.
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