There's a chance we might even see an Aurora here in AZ tonight too.  Last
time I saw one down here (about a decade ago) it appeared as a dull red
coloration of large parts of the sky.  You'd get fans and things like that
that can change on short timescales as the particles hit the atmosphere
overhead.  If you're up north, for example in Canada, it might appear as a
typical bright green Aurora with fast moving curtains and all.

Check out the SOHO website which shows recent images from the SOHO spacecraft
that was built to study the sun at:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html

for recent images of the Sun.  Particularly, note the MDI continuum images
which are more or less visible white light images of the sun similar to what
you would see in a telescope (properly filtered of course!).  There are 2
huge sunspot groups that can be seen with the unaided eye if you can find any
welders glass, for example to look through (do NOT look at the unfiltered sun
- it can only hurt your eyes) or maybe as the sun sets if the smoke from the
California fires obscures the sun enough just before sunset.  You can also
project an image with a small telescope or binoculars onto a white sheet of
paper.  It isn't often that a sunspot can be seen with the unaided eye, so if
you can find a way to take a look (safely!), you ought to.

There are some MPEG movies on the SOHO webpage which shows things like flares
and Coronal Mass Ejections and so on (look at the LASCO C2 and C3 images and
check out the movies at the bottom of the above webpage - but watch out,
those MPEGS are big!).

There's also a link at the top of the above webpage titled "Huge Flare, Fast
CME, and Proton Event" that will show what all the hubbub is about with a
closeup of the flare that may cause the Aurora and other side affects as well
as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).  It's amazing just how much activity the
Sun has.  I think the flare caused the CME and the material being ejected
that you can see in the lower 2 images includes some of the particles that
are headed this way and may cause our celestial light show tonight (if it
happens...).

Jim.

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003, Trisha wrote:

> Hey all, watch out for the killer solar flares....headed this way!
> 
> Trisha "Lightning"
> Prescott
> 
> 

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/