• oo1@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      i think a lot of people get misled by all the pictures.

      The aurora tends to look very grey and washed out to the naked eye.
      Unless they’re moving fast enough they’re easily mistaken for thin hazy grey cloud.

      Most of the pictures you’ll see are with long exposure settings to get the colours to show much more vivid than they actually appear.

      I guess this might be different with these strong aurora - I didn’t look last night but I’m right in a city anyway.

      • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I got to see them here once, with all the city light pollution coming from north of me, all I could see was a faint flickering haze. If I didn’t know what I was seeing, I would have just dismissed it. It all depends on the conditions. The pics my buddy out west sent me last night from his phone were faint, and he said he couldn’t see anything otherwise. His mom a few miles away got much more vivid colors, with visible bands. They’re out in the country though.

        And of course… Now it’s sunny and beautiful, clouds are gone. Another flare fired off this morning and it looks like the storm may keep up through the weekend. Hopefully the weather holds tonight and we get a good show.