If you stick your melon out the window tonight (Oct 29th) you just may get to see an Aurora! More likely here in Perth, even more likely in Boyanup or some other country hamlet where the weather's good. Apparently it might even happen before 11 PM, check the link
Expressed in more scientific terms by a Mr Man from the U.W.A. Physics department in the full story.
—–EXTENDED BODY:
word straight from some Physics guy:
The sun has been very active lately, but much of the media hype has not
come to pass. Things may be different tonight. The X17.2 solar flare of 28
Oct (1110 UTC), the second biggest of this solar cycle, emitted charged
particles directly towards earth. It is estimated the shock front will hit
about 1500 UTC (11pm WAST) on the 29th and may produce an aurora visible
from our latitude. It may even be as good as the great aurora of March
13-14 1989, then again it may be a fizzer. It all depends on the polarity
of the magnetic field of the arriving plasma relative to the earth's.
badger's translation: If you stick your melon out the window tonight (Oct 29th) you just may get to see an Aurora! More likely here in Perth, even more likely in Boyanup or some other country hamlet where the visibility's good. Apparently it might even happen before 11 PM, check the link
<a href="http://www.ips.gov.au/Main.php?CatID=4&SecID=2&SecName=Alerts%20and%20Warnings&SubSecID=4&SubSecName=Aurora%20Alert">link</a>
B-Diddy DubSac says:
[glow=red,2,1]Dude, I was like, soooo wasted last nite that I think I saw the Auroroa…….localised…….in my toilet……[/glow] :puke:
badger says:
well i didn't see much out the window last night but check out this graph from the Canberra magnetometer! Magnetic fields going mental!
A quick scan through [url=ftp://www.ips.gov.au/data/Geophysical/Historical%20Data/Magnetograms/Canberra/]here[/url] (if you can be arsed) reveals that this amount of deviation is unusual.
[img]ftp://www.ips.gov.au/data/Geophysical/Historical%20Data/Magnetograms/Canberra/cbrraw.031029.gif[/img]
Professor Nerdlinger says:
Shit, and here I was thinking I'm the nerd
badger says:
Well professor here's more nerdisms for ya - from the looks of your ip address you're some kind of a coc-eyed wallbux alter-ego. smiley-face wink!
But back to the aurora eh? Here's an image of the location of the aurora in the southern hemisphere. You can see South America in the top right corner and New Zealand at about 9 o'clock.
[img]http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapS.gif[/img]
killer says:
nice work badger, full nerdy work then followed it up with an i.p. address smackdown.
[url=http://www.troy.k12.oh.us/technology/Humor/gates_car.html]Here[/url] is a joke to send around to all your nerdy friends.
Hardly Brain Surgery says:
Some of my best friends are nerds…..
just kidding, you're the only one :D Smiley face, smiley face LOLNERDZ (PS When's the Sprink Break Announcement???)
KL says:
All this magnetic activity was really just messages being beamed to the [url=http://www.kilbot.net/news/comments.php?id=52]Alien in my head[/url]
badger says:
My favorite nerd related experience (there are plenty) was when I was having a ciggie break out the front of the Physics building, as is my wont, when a fellow PhD student walked past, stopped and said "you look like you're pausing and refreshing, just like a RAM chip!".
I must also argue that Physics is more geeky than nerdy - P4P would have to qualify as a comic book nerd, as would anyone that ever played dungeons and dragons (here's looking at you KL).
KL says:
Yeah, I got a charisma of 18 and unlimited hit points and I'm proud of it. P4P is a wrestling nerd (ie GAY). I think I fall more into the geeky category, but there are many people with opinions in this [url=http://www.earthsea.com/metrogamers/nerd-gee.htm]argument[/url] and most would class me as a nerd. So you may be right.