קום צו פֿאָרן, ליבסטער מײַנער, און גענוג שױן אונדז צו טרױמען

[sovay]

We saw the aurora borealis from Robbins Farm. For half an hour on foot, we had followed a kind of elusive greenish haze through the rooftops of Somerville and by the time we got into the car to drive out to the park where I used to set off model rockets in the summers as a child and once watched a lunar eclipse, really expected to see nothing more than a foxfire flicker before the clouds came up from the high-wattage string of the skyline in the south. We saw curtains. We saw plumes. We saw feathers and columns and fields in flux from Cassiopeia to Gemini. None of it looked like a special effect: it looked like the sky, waning and stretching. The dominant color was the spectral uranium-glass green of the photographs, but there were reddish lights and blue tones and all of it visible to the naked eye at 42° 26' 50" N. Every now and then a meteor flashed westward from the Eta Aquarid shower. And we met a puppeteer who asked if we were space people and the conversation went ranging from there while the sky kept glowing. A naked puppet with no eyes asked me never to speak of our interaction the next time we met. I sang some Yiddish. What else? I never expected to see the aurora without traveling for it. spatch has just informed me it is courtesy of a sunspot unrivaled since the nineteenth century. I know there's a hell of a good universe next door, but what a neat one this one sometimes is.

Comments

[labingi]

Glad you got to see it! We barely did too. My eyesight is so bad I wouldn't have known I was looking at anything without being told, but I could discern a purple haze of sorts.

My partner woke me up to see it right after I'd fallen asleep (around 11:30), and I was totally disoriented. I had no idea what time it was and little idea what was going on, but I'm glad I got up to look.

[sovay]

Glad you got to see it! We barely did too. My eyesight is so bad I wouldn't have known I was looking at anything without being told, but I could discern a purple haze of sorts.

I'm so glad it was visible to you at all! We worried at first that we would be clouded out, then that we wouldn't be able to get enough distance from the light pollution. If we had just stayed in our neighborhood, we would only have seen that odd apple-green touch in the sky hovering persistently northward.

[ethelmay]

We got a fair display in Seattle (for a wonder it was actually clear), but there was sufficient light pollution that the camera "saw" far more than I did. I am very glad you saw more.

[sovay]

We got a fair display in Seattle (for a wonder it was actually clear), but there was sufficient light pollution that the camera "saw" far more than I did. I am very glad you saw more.

Thank you! It was incredible to me just how much was there to be seen without enhancement. It furled across half the sky at one point as if it were wrapping around the pole star. spatch asked if we were near an airfield because it resembled floodlights just beyond the horizon. I don't think I could have read by it, but I could see the puppeteer's face far more clearly when it really brightened. The colors were real, not an artifact of photography. I'm so glad your weather cleared up in time!

[ride_4ever]

Bless you for sharing such a vivid description of your aurora experience. I know so many people who have lengthy so-called "bucket lists" while I have only two items on mine, and one of those is to see the aurora borealis...but last night was cloudy and rainy, so no, I still have never seen it...and very lovely to read your description of your experience.

[sovay]

I know so many people who have lengthy so-called "bucket lists" while I have only two items on mine, and one of those is to see the aurora borealis...but last night was cloudy and rainy, so no, I still have never seen it...and very lovely to read your description of your experience.

Thank you! I hope very much that your local weather accommodates for a second shot at the aurora tonight. It amazes me that it was just there to be seen. And still going on behind the sky.

[troisoiseaux]

What an enchanting experience!

[sovay]

What an enchanting experience!

I kept laughing in happiness because it was real: it was happening in a sky I had seen all my life and I could see it.

[bironic]

Wonderful. I'm bummed I didn't go out at the right hour to look. What time were you observing?

[sovay]

Wonderful. I'm bummed I didn't go out at the right hour to look. What time were you observing?

Between one and three-thirty in the morning. We had read that it would taper off around two o'clock, but the most vivid and extensive display was actually the last hour we were at the park. It was still going strong when we left. There should still be a chance for you to see it tonight!

[bironic]

I'm going to try! Regardless, your experience sounds amazing.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I'm glad. That sounds lovely.

[sovay]

Aw, I'm glad. That sounds lovely.

Thank you! I saw the ionized sky!

[asakiyume]

OMG I am so happy for you and so intensely jealous as the same time. I went outside but saw nothing; tonight I'm going to try to get to a darker place.

So, so SO happy, though, that you saw it with your bare eyes: perfect; as it should be.

Blessings on that gorgeous sky, blessings on this beautiful planet, its magnetic fields, our sun, and the whole wide universe!

[sovay]

Blessings on that gorgeous sky, blessings on this beautiful planet, its magnetic fields, our sun, and the whole wide universe!

*hugs*

I hope very much that you can see the aurora for yourself tonight. We were in a metro area and the sky still looked like luminous and breathing tourmaline.

[asakiyume]

It's looking *extremely* overcast at the moment, but it's okay. If it happens, it happens. If not, I love thinking of you witnessing the pulsations.

[aurumcalendula]

That sounds so cool!

I didn't have much luck seeing it where I'm at, but I'm hoping I have better luck tonight.

[sovay]

I didn't have much luck seeing it where I'm at, but I'm hoping I have better luck tonight.

Fingers crossed! I really had not imagined to see so much of it at our latitude. It was one of those moments of the universe up close.

[sartorias]

Oh, what a lovely evening! Thanks for sharing it.

[sovay]

Oh, what a lovely evening! Thanks for sharing it.

You're welcome! It was a marvel to me.

[sholio]

What an incredible experience! I'm so glad you not only got to see it, but it put on a fantastic show for you.

[sovay]

What an incredible experience! I'm so glad you not only got to see it, but it put on a fantastic show for you.

Thank you so much! I understand why no one ever tires of seeing this dance.

[gwynnega]

I'm glad you got to see it!

[sovay]

I'm glad you got to see it!

Thank you! Did it come down where you are?

[gwynnega]

I hadn't thought it would, but apparently it did!

[skygiants]

ahhhh our schedule completely precluded aurora-chasing but that sounds amazing (what did you sing!)

[sovay]

ahhhh our schedule completely precluded aurora-chasing but that sounds amazing (what did you sing!)

Thank you! It was in fact wonderful. We had just planned to walk around and see if we could catch anything and the next thing we knew it was almost three hours later and we were talking about vaudeville and climate science under an electrically excited sky. (Bits of "Di Arbuzn" and "Makhetonim geyen." The puppeteer was trying to remember "A Yingele, A Meydele," which I recognize by ear but do not actually know well enough to sing.)

[a_reasonable_man]

I'm so glad you got to see it. I went out last night at 1, but could not catch a glimpse of a glimmer here in Cambridge. The last time I saw a pulsing sky was about forty years ago.

[sovay]

I'm so glad you got to see it. I went out last night at 1, but could not catch a glimpse of a glimmer here in Cambridge. The last time I saw a pulsing sky was about forty years ago.

Thank you! We found that it really lit up between two and three a.m. Where were you for the aurora forty years ago?

[a_reasonable_man]

Williams College. Late on a clear, frigid night, I was walking across the big central lawn, when I noticed the sky pulsing green and red. I could not then go to bed. I trudged through the snow to the north end of campus, where there were no buildings and no lights, just a wide open field bordered by dark woods. I was the only person there. And I stood there as long as I could stand the cold, gazing up.

[sovay]

I trudged through the snow to the north end of campus, where there were no buildings and no lights, just a wide open field bordered by dark woods. I was the only person there. And I stood there as long as I could stand the cold, gazing up.

That sounds spellbinding.

[starlady]

It sounds so cool! Here in the Bay Area we were choked with light pollution but I'm debating driving out to the reservoir where I saw the comet four years ago to take my chances tonight.

I did see them once in college -- just green, at the bottom of the horizon, but with good movement. (Apparently green is the color you can see from farthest away.) I remember being amazed that they were silent, because it really seemed like they should be accompanied by the music of the spheres.

[sovay]

It sounds so cool! Here in the Bay Area we were choked with light pollution but I'm debating driving out to the reservoir where I saw the comet four years ago to take my chances tonight.

Go for it! And may there be an aurora as there was a comet.

I did see them once in college -- just green, at the bottom of the horizon, but with good movement. (Apparently green is the color you can see from farthest away.) I remember being amazed that they were silent, because it really seemed like they should be accompanied by the music of the spheres.

They are supposed to make a noise like radio static, but I don't know if we could have heard it last night. (Even beyond the animated conversation.) They could also sound like tide and I would accept it.

[minoanmiss]

delights in your delight

[sovay]

delights in your delight

*hugs*

[theseatheseatheopensea]

We saw curtains. We saw plumes. We saw feathers and columns and fields in flux from Cassiopeia to Gemini. None of it looked like a special effect: it looked like the sky, waning and stretching. The dominant color was the spectral uranium-glass green of the photographs, but there were reddish lights and blue tones and all of it visible to the naked eye at 42° 26' 50" N. Every now and then a meteor flashed westward from the Eta Aquarid shower.

<3 Beautiful!

[sovay]

Beautiful!

Thank you! It was!

[nineweaving]

Glorious!

I spent two nights out in the cold looking for the Northern lights, and saw nothing. My heart is broken, but I rejoice for you. Thank you for giving me what I missed.

Nine

[sovay]

I spent two nights out in the cold looking for the Northern lights, and saw nothing. My heart is broken, but I rejoice for you. Thank you for giving me what I missed.

I'm glad it conveyed some of the sky to you.

*hugs*