Hey folks, been a long while! I saw NLCs this year on two occasions. Night of July 1 and July 2 very early AM. only 5 hours inbetween observations. I've watched quite a few nights this year and it was nice for it to pay off! even though they were very dim/small displays. Here's one from July 2 at 420am. These were observed at 44 degrees north latitude.

WOW! Some really awesome shots in here Martin! Looks like your having a blast so far this winter 

Some nice shots in here everyone! it's been a while since I've been on here, due to being very busy with work and school, but now that I'm on winter break I have a bit of time to catch up. Can't say there's been much to share in my part of the world lately, but I was fortunate enough to get clear skies for this eclipse. I headed to the state capital building (just a few blocks from my apt) and nearly froze my hands off waiting for the moon to line up with the statue on top of the capital! I have to say I'm extremely pleased with the lighting on the building at this time of night  It was nearly a perfect exposure for both the moon and the building. PS (I've posted one more shot on my page... http://tonightssky.org/)

Got a once in a lifetime shot the other night, caught a transformer blowing up on camera after 5 cloud to ground strikes hit (all in my frame) All the strikes were closer than a mile to me, the middle bolt was less than a half mile! more info and photos here... http://tonightssky.org/accounts/090110.html

Forgot I was going to post another update lol, Anyways, had a great year even though I missed a lot of big days. Here's a timelapse video of some awesome rotation in Minnesota August 12... http://tonightssky.org/accounts/081210.html  Here are a few of the top photos from the second half of the year....












Heres another video from Kansas on June 10th... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiTf_ZRAnS4

Some great shots here Richard, John and Andy! Meteors are dang hard work lol, I took nearly 500 shots and had just 4 meteors go through the frame. Richard - Impressive count!!! Yeah I'm in Minnesota now, but heading back to Nebraska in a couple days for school (will be there till next May or June). Also, both the shots I posted were with the 50mm f/1.8. Its almost necessity to have f/2.8 or faster. Was clouded out last night, but tonight looks to be clear so looking forward to more meteors

Hoping to beat my count from last year which was 273... I'm at 225 (9 a few nights ago, then 214). Only need 48!

Got storms to the west thinking It will be cloudy the rest of the night. Here are a couple from the other night...

Had a gorgeous clear sky last night! Started watching from home at 0230z till 05z and saw 25 or less. I had a lot of trees in my way, so Moved further down my driveway and did a shot with the milkway and had a crazy meteor go through my frame! sucks I was at F4 and it didn't turn out :/ Then I learned you pretty much HAVE to shoot with your fastest lens, so I started shooting with my 50mm 1.8. Drove 10 miles outside of town into some fog got a bit south to some incredible skies. Started a new watch from 07z - 08z and witnessed 58 Perseids! then again from 08z to 09z and saw 64 perseids! Totaled up at 214 Perseids and 16 sporadics from 0230z to 10z. It was a glorious night to be out watching! also had some cool fog ops while out, so probably missed a good 30-40 meteors while taking pics of fog LOL.

I got three meteors on camera that I'll post later. Never thought I'd be close to my count last year over two nights! (272) Now holding out hope that storms don't cloud the skies tonight!

Fabulous shots Paul and Martin. I've been clouded out the last few nights and still have only seen 9 perseids. It appears tonight will be the only clear night close to the peak :/ so I will have to make the most of it. Time to Nap! lol

excellent image Richard. And congrats on Spaceweather!

Had brief pillars last night, this time much dimmer than last nights. Lasted < 15 minutes and the pictures really suck since they were so dim, I may post some later though. Also observed 16 meteors and saw nearly a dozen satellites, two of which were following each other VERY closely, looked a lot like the ISS and shuttle, any ideas what that might have been? they were going due north.

It appears they CANCELLED the watch. Stating that "It appears that the two coronal mass ejections observed on 1 August
merged into one event that became geoeffective late on 3 August."

Guess I won't be needing to watch tonight :/

while out Aurora watching last night I observed 16 meteors, of which 9 were Perseids. My attention was skyward for probably 2 hours total so I probably missed a few, but still I think thats some decent activity for being a week away from the peak.

Yes, its that time of year again! meteor observing season. Figured I'd start a thread since I saw a few of them last night. Haven't heard much about this years shower, but the moon should be of no interference after 10pm! I'll plan to be out every clear night until the peak for a couple hours at least. Mike H was telling me that he saw dozens last night, so sounds like activity is really starting to get going! anyone have any more info on the event?

Thanks everyone, it was an exciting 1.5 minutes LOL. Hopefully I'll get to see a proper display tonight, wonder if we'll even be able to know when it hits since it's supposed to be weaker... perhaps it did hit at 09z this morning? there's a slight increase in solar wind speed.

Also I forgot to mention I observed 3 perseids last night, and I wasn't looking for them, they were all caught by the corner of my eye. Tonight should be clear, so hoping to see a bunch of perseids!

Finally observed my first auroras last night! went out just as twilight was fading and took a few shots, after about 20 minutes Green started showing up on my horizon! there were clouds on the horizon though, so they aren't great images, had we had clear skies it could have been very cool with a 50mm 1.8 later at around 04z I witnessed a brief surge in activity. This shot is at 10mm. I never saw those powerlines till I uploaded the photos! ugh lol. By 05z there was no sign of Auroras, but at 0530z Mike H gave me a call and said he was seeing some crazy glowing cloud phenomena, but at this time my sky was 95% cloud covered. Will be interesting to see what he saw. Anyways here is one photo for now...



I will post more photos tomorrow and hopefully we'll have an even better display once the filament hits! For now I think I am going to sleep as we have thick cirrus and the Bz and solar wind charts are not showing any activity.