Who
      says getting near solar minimum can be boring? A few days ago,
      a huge sunspot spewed out three CME events in the coarse of two
      days, from a giant flare. The sunspot was facing earth - right
      in the middle of the sun, and for the morning of the 18th, the
      Bz component was quite south pointing, drawing the protons right
      in. Here is a photographic diary of that night, as recorded by
      our robotic Aurora Cam, with the Zenitar 16mm fisheye.
 
Click on Thumbnails for the 800 x 600 size
 

      
 From upper
      left to lower right, the time changed from 7:30pm on the night
      of the 17th, with the half moon in the sky causing a bluish coloration.
      The shots are started every 15 minutes and the last frame was
      taken at 4:30am on the 18th, about an hour before the first light
      of twilight was to begin. As you can see, sometime just after
      midnight, the kp rose to about 7, and the red glow rose skyward
      from the north, and as has happened before, started to diffuse
      out near morning. Only a hint of the red glow was suspected with
      the naked eye. This is primarily a photographic Aurora. You can
      capture some amazingly faint aurora with a 10 minute exposure
      and 400 asa film!
 

      
 Frame 23,
      the glow rises about half way to Polaris. The field here is 180
      degrees diagonally. You can see the big dipper to the left of
      center upside down.
 

      
 Frame 27,
      The glow becomes more structured and fainter, but rises higher
      in the sky.
 

      
 Frame 35,
      at exactly 4:30am the last shot fired off timed within a millisecond
      by the computer in the Aurora Cam. The glow now is very diffuse
      and rises well up past Polaris. The glow on the left in the trees
      is our kitchen light comming on as we get up from sleeping and
      get ready to go to work.

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