Northern lights may drift above Northwest skies

Now, I certainly don't want to get anyone's hopes up. But, a pretty large solar flare flew away from the Sun earlier this week and may cause auroral activity that will be visible from the lower 48. Including the Pacific Northwest. The Univ. of Alaska Geophysical Institute website has online forecast info for northern light activity. The map for tonight and tomorrow shows increased activity in Earth's ionosphere which pretty much directly translates into pretty colors in the sky. The more energetic this region of our atmosphere due to solar flare activity, the potentially bigger, brighter and more widespread the view of these colorful displays.

Among other photography-related things I'll be doing this weekend I may head out if it's clear and I can think of a relatively dark sky place without having to drive 100 miles. Don't believe you can see the aurora from so far south? Here it is over Lake Superior, North Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Link to a live map of aurora activity

Fri. October 20, 2006, 10:43am PDT

WSHS Donor wall FAQ

Looks as though the WSHS is doing a little campaigning for the building of their controversial donor wall through a FAQ and timeline on their site. As I'm sure historians would agree taking an opinionated stance on events can taint their accuracy in portraying those events. Short of their own blog, I suppose this is a good way for them to get their opinions about the donor wall out and about. Seems their mostly concerned, according to the FAQ, about making the area more secure by limiting access and won't consider an archway to avoid accidental motor traffic on the Bridge of Glass. Who ever said anything about another archway?

Most of the FAQ is very confrontative asking skewed questions like "Have you violated your easement agreement with the City of Tacoma?", "Why is the History Museum denying direct access to the Bridge of Glass?", "Why do you have an anti-pedestrian attitude?" (my favorite), and other gems. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Mount Rainier can't be seen at all from the Museum's main arch, as is noted in one FAQ answer.

All in all, a good read. Seems like a bit of grasping at straws but, in the interest of opinion-based information, it's good to have out there.

Link to the FAQ

I fancy we could come up with our equally opinionated FAQ. Shoot your questions and answers into the comments below.

Previously on KFnet

Thanks Jake!

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Fri. October 20, 2006, 07:29am PDT

Northern lights may drift above Northwest skies

Fri. October 20, 2006, 10:43am PDT

WSHS Donor wall FAQ

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