Yesterday afternoon, the local TV stations and news website sent out a flash weather report that conditions were right for us to POTENTIALLY see a some the Aurora Borealis. Never seen them before, so about 9 last night I hoped in my truck and headed out of town.
I didn't drive far...headed kind of northwest on highway 240 for about 15 miles, and pulled off the road...not quite the middle of nowhere, but at least a third of the way there. Then I jumped out of the car and waited.
And Waited.
While I waited, I made a list. Bringing a folding chair would have been nice...and some bug repellant also.
It was just me, and the dark...except for the cars driving by...and on the average, that was only a car ever 5 minutes or so.
I saw a lot of stars, and a lot of sky.. I saw a few satellites moving through the milky way...and off to the north I might have seen a vertical streak of the palest green/white that you coukd make yourself you imagine you were seeing.
Two hours was enough. It wasn't a wasted night...wife and kids weren't home, and like I said, there was some big beautiful sky. I consider it a dry run for next weekend...I'll try to drag the family back to that spot to watch the Perseid Meteor's next weekend. The temperature was a pleasant 73 degrees still at 11...and I did get to see three or four nice shooting stars. For consistency and reinforcement, I made the same wish on each one...which means when my wife is driving home today, she should see Christina Hendricks walking on the side of the road, and offer to bring her home for dinner...it's up to me from that point....
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