Aurora Borealis (photography) from Seattle or Vancouver, BC.....

[John McElhiney]

Hello ALL-
I have been living here in Seattle only for 4 months. I moved from Atlanta,
GA where Aurora Borealis photography is not possible. Where is the best
place and what time of year to see the "Aurora Borealis"? Do I need to drive
way up to British Columbia to the Coastal Mountains or Canadian Rockies in
the dead of winter to get this or will I get this opportunity in the extreme
north suburbs of Seattle at night? Anyone with extended experience in the
of the Aurora Borealis please reply to both the group and myself. I plan on
doing alot of this type of photography this winter. This will be an
extension of my 'star trails' photography to which I have been into for a
while.
Thanks!

[Steelhead]

Couple of sites; http://www.spaceweather.com/ http://www.spacew.com/www/aurora.html http://www.sec.noaa.gov/Aurora/index.html
steel

[Roger Clark]

I lived in Seattle in the 1960's up to 1975. As an amateur
astronomer, I was out quite a bit. I also worked for
Batelle Observatory out of Richland. Battelle was a
Red Arc Auroral monitoring station then (still?).
I learned that from Washington state, a visible aurora
occurs about once a month during high solar activity.
I've seen them so bright that you could read a newspaper
by the light! I've also seen "fire" aurora: pulsating
flashes that go from horizon to zenith about 3-times
per second--the most impressive sky event I've ever seen.
Also, curtains, and all the usual autora stuff.
All this from eastern washington. I've seen some
pretty good aurora about 20 miles east of Seattle
(but that area is now city!).
I've also seen them from Seattle, but they are inimpressive.
Looks sort of like a cirrus cloud. And that was ~20 years
ago--Seattle has grown a lot. But just outside the city
a ways, you can probably see a lot.

The following web site shows geomagnetic activity:
http://sec.noaa.gov/rpc/costello/index.html

On the plots, when activity is above the red line
(Kp index > 5) there is a chance of aurora, but with a
low probably for the continental US (my opinion). When it gets
to ~7 then there is a high probability of seeing aurora
in Washington. At greater than 8: drop everything and get
to a dark site (for northern half of continental US).

I did a lot of observing in the Ellensberg region, which
is a couple of hours drive from Seattle. Also, from the
top of Tiger Mountain (but the city has grown out around
Tiger Mountain now --that was country back then!).

You might check with the Seattle Astronomical Society
for observing sites. They used to have an observatory
but it is city now. They may have a new one. It could
be a safer place to go than the middle of nowhere.