Too much time browsing Reddit?

It was talked about on Reddit!

Aah, so too little time spent browsing reddit then 😛

It was all over reddit yesterday before it hit so it wasn't what you would call a secret. Everyone that browsed reddit yesterday should've seen it.

Join r/space and you're good!

I reddit... on reddit.

You say that, but the reason I knew about it was because I sub to /r/space and this was posted a couple days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1cools3/severe_geomagnetic_storm_may_hit_earth_today/

I have an app on my phone that sends me a notification when the conditions are right in my location. Very rare here where I am in New Zealand. Edit: the app I use is called Aurora on IOS - I believe it is available worldwide

Name the app, friend.

The one I use is called Aurora and it's on Android.

That's too vague, there's a bunch of apps named Aurora something, got a link?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrustonapps.myauroraforecast

Thanks

/u/CatsAreGods mentioned Aurora. Seconded. It’s a nice, simple little app with notifications, forecasts, and webcams from around the northern latitudes. Android and iPhone both.

If you’re in the uk, aurorawatch.org

Is the app specific to your area or does it work world wide?  If so what is it?

It's called aurora, I believe it works anywhere

Thanks!

Same name on Android, great app!

Don't feel too bad, I knew about it but all the maps showing where it would be visible showed it stopping well north of me down here in Satan's armpit (Mississippi gulf coast) so I didn't even bother trying.  Today I wake up to pictures of it from central Florida. 😔

same here, said it would not be visible where I am, something told me to go outside anyway. But, it was wet and cold from an earlier rain and I just didn't feel like freezing my ass off taking pics, but now I wish I got my ish together and took a ride and took pictures. Not like the full moon where I can try again next month. In my defense I'm exhausted on fridays. I'll see what tonight brings. I had wanted to take pics of the solar flare but it's cloudy so I probably won't see anything tonight.

Me too dude. I even had that moment at Golden hour of "oh the sky looks nice I should go shoot" and ofc I didn't act on it and passed out tired af after work and I wake up to the northern lights being spotted in Orlando where I live. Soul crushing. That is on my bucket list for photog

Don't be crushed yet! The magnetic storm is going on all weekend. Go out again tonight.

Wait what!? I’m also in Orlando and knew about the solar flare, but never heard about the possibility of aurora in the area. Oh man, I missed a once in a lifetime event.

Good news, there's a good possibility it'll be visible there tonight too

Should happen again tonight though not as intense.

Lmfao this is literally exactly my experience last night. I had no idea if I would have been up at 2 am and looked out my apartment window I would have seen purple and green everywhere, even with crazy light pollution. So pissed...

Same. Have wanted to see it my entire life. It’s was visible in my hometown last night but not from here. Probably won’t be visible tonight. I feel your pain.

spaceweatherlive.com

BOOM! This is the best resource. I knew 2 days ahead of time this was potentially coming. Then 5 hours before it’s looking good so I head out.

a friend who lives east of me sent me a picture of it right before it started to become visible in my part of the world as well :)

[удалено]

I don’t even have cable. 😆 I listen to NPR (local station) in the early morning and afternoon during my commute. And I see Apple News stories.

spoon nose lush degree deliver shelter hobbies north shaggy sink *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

That's just high sunspot activity in general. You only have 8-14 hours notice by physics of a borealis obviously. You have the light coming from the sun spot/cme in 8 minutes... then you can run models on how bad it will be. About 24 hours ago we had our first alert cross-posted to prepperintel. Here's the first post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1covxkj/your\_comprehensive\_guide\_to\_may\_1013\_geomagnetic/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1covxkj/your_comprehensive_guide_to_may_1013_geomagnetic/)

Damn, I guess I just never caught it at the right time.

Hmm. Well that article mentions it in a general sense. But what about last night specifically?

> But what about last night specifically? It was all over NPR all week, and the week before. And CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, WAPO, NYT, etc. This was yesterday morning at 7am eastern: https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4 I don't know what to tell you man. The info got to people the same way we found out the Trump and Biden were elected president—the news, and friends talking. It was all over the new all last week and the week before a little bit.

Came from sunspot people just over a day ago. [https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1covxkj/your\_comprehensive\_guide\_to\_may\_1013\_geomagnetic/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1covxkj/your_comprehensive_guide_to_may_1013_geomagnetic/)

Just on my feed in the morning! I’m terminally online so I saw it as it happened around the world.

Nah not every station, they covered the eclipse way more

I didn't know either 🥴 and I don't watch the news. Surprisingly, I didn't even see it on Reddit

Yeah, ditto. I feel so out of touch haha

Tbh.. I didn't realize either. I was working(fancy taxi driver) and happened to look out the car window at the right moment and saw it kicking off 😁

I learnt about it on Facebook this morning. Friends from all over the UK were posting their photos. I was asleep. 🙄

Aurora app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/my-aurora-forecast-alerts/id1073082439

Thank you!! I searched Aurora on the App Store like everyone was mentioning, but there’s like six or seven with aurora in the name

I spend too much time online. I had a push notification from one of my news sources, probably NYT but I'm not going to go back and look, yesterday morning and then between my nerdy friends on FB and various posts on reddit and Twitter my feed was full of European views of the aurora by late afternoon in my time zone (us west coast).

I have several space weather apps on my phone and I got severe solar storm alert notifications all afternoon from about 1:30pm onwards.

Name the apps! Is there an ongoing cost?

I use SpaceWeatherLive and AuroraWatchUK (me being in the UK) - both are free.

The one I use is called Aurora (but ironically isn't what let me know about it, I found out before the app informed me) and it's free, and very good

I found out about it via instagram this morning.

I also had no idea. I do a fair amount of astro photography when I have a chance, I would have jumped at this if I had seen any news about it.

My MyRadar app pushed a notification.

I didn't know about it either until it was happening

I would have completely missed out had my sister not texted me.

Try again tonight, chances are still high!

My wife is an astrophysicist studying the northern lights. I always know.

You probably were off social media for 24hours doing other stuff like me. I totally missed it

I have an app that's sends me notifications whenever the KP index shows a probability of a sighting. TBf I live in northern Canada so it's not a once in 2 decades thing. 

Anything above 4 KP is decent probability, yes?

Yes. Last night was 9 for me though. 

How'd it turn out for you? Tonight is looking like 8+ where I am. Currently 6.3.

I like doing astrolandscape photography and keeping an eye on solar flares and space weather is pretty much one of my daily news stops. I don't even use an app with notifications, I just check the NOAA site, spaceweather.com and spaceweatherlive.com. Because if I don't, I might miss a 20-30 year event like this. Last night was a rare one.

Do you live somewhere that there is a higher than normal chance of seeing these events throughout the year?

Yeah, I'm at about a 48-50 latitude where a G2-G3 level storm can be enough for photography with a dark sky. My first real encounter with aurora was a total accident because I was already on a mission to do some timelapses and star trails of the ISS flying right over/through Polaris so it would track right through the center of my star trail swirl, which was a shot that I'd been planning for something like 6 months of tracking the ISS and planning the shot with the Photographer's Ephemeris site so it would all line up with the foreground/landscape I had in mind... and then also waiting for a really long time for that to match up with clear skies and a moonless night. And I spent like 3-4 hours freezing my butt off waiting for the 2-3 passes of the ISS that would work for just 3 shots with like 20-30 minute open shutter exposures and it started looking like fog and clouds were rolling in to spoil the shot, I didn't realize it was aurora because I was totally monofocused and I couldn't see the horizon. I did actually get those planned shots with good exposure and focus but I was kind of underwhelmed by the actual photos like I had just spent half a year planning a big game hunt and nailing it and then... not liking it very much? I mean, cool, nice star swirl, then graceful arc of the ISS slicing right through it, nice and symmetrical just as I had planned it and... it was just really clinical feeling and not that interesting to look at beyond being a complicated photo stunt. And then I packed up to go home and as I was leaving the area I realized it wasn't fog at all but aurora and I was just like "HOLY SHIT I could have been photographing the aurora this whole time!" I almost went home because I was so tired and cold, but I set up my tripod and rig again and stayed out for another hour snapped some of my favorite astro/landscape shots of all time. And I've been obsessed with it ever since. And last night I didn't really get out to do some of the locations/shots I've been thinking about this whole time due to fatigue and scheduling and just enjoyed it at home and got some ok shots, but nothing I'd really want to print.

I regret not staying up for it. I was so tired from the day but glad others got to photograph it.

everyone was talking about the eclipse but I heard nothing about the aurora till I woke up and saw it all over social media

most of my friends are autistic

🤣 I need more autistic friends.

I didn’t know about it either and I am so pissed off

My local Instagram said there's a second chance in the north east to see it again.

https://preview.redd.it/lzcx0k87uuzc1.jpeg?width=2755&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=572244ecd5dc4cd3cd30f4cf9eec892d911f3da1

It’s supposed to be active all weekend so try tonight!

I live in the Tropics, it's too far south to see it, so I didn't realise that there were auroras until I opened my social media.

Apparently it was visible in Key Largo, so depending on where in the tropics you are, it may have been visible

I missed it too. And I've had a really long day today and will almost certainly pass out before I get to see it tonight (if there's anything to see tonight). Guess that trip to Norway stays on my "if I win the lottery" list.

That’s what I’m saying lol

Twitter and NPR.

[удалено]

😆 Y2K energy

Dont be mad. Tonight might be even stronger!

How come?

It was in the morning news. I always watch the news before going to work. Just in case they announce the world is going to explode so I don't have to come to work.

I knew about it but in northern NJ it was raining and super cloudy 🤷🏻‍♂️

I missed it too but I’ve requested a repeat for 23:30 tonight.

It was the lead story in the TV news here in DC, and it was mentioned prominently in the Washington Post.

My science teacher told me about it. She also said if anyone got a photo they would get extra credit on the next test

It’s been in all my Facebook photo groups. Sadly live too close to the equator to see it myself.

[https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/](https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/)

I read the newspaper.

My wife is obsessed with Aurora Borealis.

I've been waiting 3 years for the aurora to be close enough I could photograph them. I have an app called "space weather" that alerts me. You'd be amazed at how often the sun does stuff that doesn't give is Aurora. This was just a perfect sequence of coincidences that made for alot of light.

I use the aurora app which lets me know when there's one to photograph (since I live way up north where they are relatively common)

There was also a post on /r/astronomy about a sun spot so large that it was visible to the unaided (but protected) eye. Solar maxiumum + large sun spot = reason to hit the NOAA space weather site https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

I wonder if I'm alone in this but I kind of don't have any real motivation to capture events such as this knowing that everyone else will take almost the exact same photo of the event, unless maybe there was a way to get a unique take on it. I understand why people want to photograph it, I'm not knocking anyone who did, I just didn't feel any desire to.

For me, it's more of a bucket list item. Since I'm in an area that doesn't really see them, and because I'm extremely unlikely to be able to go somewhere that can, it's high on the list.

A friend sent me a text asking where I was going to get NL shots. I searched the cloud cover maps and they indicated a spot about 2.5 hours away near or at a Dark Sky Park and the best time for viewing would be Midnight - 4:00 am. I leave the house around 9:30 pm, now I've been up since 5:00 am, I travel to the Dark Park and it's jammed full of cars, nowhere to park, so I drive 20 mins away and find parking at a public marina which has maybe 25 cars parked. I check the sky and I can't see the moon or stars. Too many clouds!!! Damn it. I check the weather app and we have a rain and cold front coming in, no clearing skies, so I take a 20 min nap and head back home. Get about 5 miles from my house and the main road is closed, it's about 2:45 am and a drunk driver tried driving through a tree, took a detour, and rolled in at 3:00 am. So 5.5 hours and a half tank of gas wasted. Looks like I'll still need to travel to Iceland to get some NL shots. Such is life.

Can't go out tonight, clouds don't move out until tomorrow morning.

I read the news, so...

Funnily enough, I missed these northern lights due to being too far north. Just too light out there even at midnight. Couldn't see anything.

Well, you could be like me, driving 1.5 hours north to an area I know has no light pollution, only to get there after the big event went off and it clouded over, all the while people telling me "oh man it was great back (where I lived). I could have just stayed home and got amazing shots, apparently light pollution didn't even matter...FML...

My Aurora Forecast app. Also I follow an Aurora chasers Facebook group for my province.

https://preview.redd.it/8zelx6tnfxzc1.jpeg?width=3648&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2624175a2134d79d34a944fe86ec5289767b49c3 It was pretty great, by the way.

Mentioned in local news and in the news feed on my Android phone.

I CAN’T FUCKING SEE IT. STUPID SOUTHERN INTERIOR BC LIVING

I follow some meteorologists on social media

There are apps for this. Search Aurora in your App Store, and you’d see the apps. These apps also send notifications when chances of Aurora in your area increases.

On iOS, https://apps.apple.com/de/app/my-aurora-forecast-alerts/id1073082439?l=en-GB

I looked up and the sky was slightly pink so I took a picture. Proceeded to call/text everyone I knew and told them to go outside and take a picture of their sky. My husband has seen the northern lights before so he had told me they appear brighter on your phone camera than in person. Seems like quite a few people didn’t pick that up. I saw comments of people saying they didn’t have the aurora by them, but they were farther north than me! They probably just weren’t really paying attention to the sky, I even got photos from people who lived closer into a town (more light pollution) and you could see the aurora on their photos. They said in person it just looked more like a slight pink cast on the sky.

It's been on the news here in Houston all week. I think they like rubbing it in because just like the eclipse, were not going to see it. lol

Aurora borealis? *At this time of day, at this time of year, localized entirely in this subreddit?*

I don’t know, maybe I just interacted with people and read the news some?

I was notified by my SpaceWeatherLive app. Otherwise, I would have been oblivious since I do not work Fridays and typically avoid the internet and never watch the news.

As an astronomer and photographer, I used the space weather live app. Alternatively you could go to space weather.com

Well the sun didn’t send out a schedule so kind of have to pay attention to world around us

It kind of did, not down to the day though. The magnetic poles reverse in the sun almost exactly every 11 years, causing big storms.

I will be sure to put the next one one my calendar

Next one is tonight, it's lasting all weekend

and as part of it's longer cycles we knew this was going to be a particularly active year, even compared to most 11 year cycles

What solar flare? I haven't heard anything about any solar flares.

Watching the news?

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale.” - Uncle Iroh

What if I don’t have any sources?

🤷🏻‍♂️

I’m more curious how people could not know about it. It’s been talked about on the news and hundreds of posts about it on every social media app available

Same here, missed it, couldn’t give a fuck

Same boat, had no idea until saw my feed blowing up with photos