--- astrodeb@charter.net wrote: <snip> If we get another alert, I may just pack my
camera and telescope and head north.
The Costello index and SEC kp plot are helpful to lower the "bust" ratio on distance driving for aurora - especially at $3.10 a gallon. They have reduced my "bust" rate down from 2/3 "no-see an aurora" to 2/3 "see an aurora." Even so, I still ocassionally sleep through some of the 3:00am displays. The Spaceweather.com telephone service is great for catching them. Guess I'm too cheap or too poor to shell out the $75 a year for the call service. - Canopus56(Kurt) P.S. - For northern Utah observers on a particular night, you can also check sci.astro.amateur for postings from the East coast. If the observers in lower Wisconsin or northern Penn are saying it's a great show, you've got an hour or so before the lowest part of the auroral band, the part opposite the Sun, will swing over Utah. If everyone is reporting from upper Wisconsin and US-Canadian border, then you probably won't get anything over Utah.
1) Space Environment Center current kp index You can follow the 30 minute time delayed geomagnetic index - http://www.sec.noaa.gov/today.html#satenv
2) Costello index. The most useful index during periods of high activity is the 30-90 minute Costello geomagnetic index predicator at - http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rpc/costello/index.html
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