November 2003
Aurora Gallery
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Summary: A coronal mass ejection (CME) swept past Earth on Nov. 20th and sparked bright auroras as far south as Florida in the United States and Greece in Europe. The source of the CME was sunspot 484--one of the trio of active regions that caused intense geomagnetic storms last month. See, e.g., the October 2003 aurora gallery.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.


  Photographer, Location Images Comments

Duane Clausen,
Menominee, Michigan, USA
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3, more

The auroras changed from looping sheets of white and green around midnight to shards of red from horizon to horizon as daybreak neared. One of the most incredible displays I've seen in 2 years.

Evan Williams,
Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3, more

The display covered the sky at times although it was not especially bright. I took these with a Nikon Coolpix 4300 with one minute exposure, 400 ASA. The orange in one photo is a cloud bank illuminated by light from the nearby town.

Dave Wymer,
Portville, New York, USA
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

The brightest display had faded but it continued late and was beautiful! OM-1 FujiCZ800

Raphael Mollaret,
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Nov. 21
#1, #2

These pictures were taken at 01:45 UT in Cramond (Edinburgh). Lights of Forth Road/Rail Bridges can be seen in the background. Photo details: Canon EOES 300, 28 mm lens, Film 1600 ASA, 15 s. exposure.

Robert B Slobins,
LaOtto, Indiana, USA
Nov. 21
#1, #2, #3, #4

This substorm took place between 0415 and 0650 UTC. This was a very unusual green aurora for this area, as I expect more red color above the rays. These images show much more than what I could see naked-eye. Photo details: Canon F1 with Canon 24/1.4L lens or Nikon F2 with Tamron 17/3.5 lens, Fuji NHGII, NPZ (ISO 800), 20-40 seconds exposure, Gitzo tripods.

Russ Hansen,
Walker, Michigan, USA
Nov. 21
#1, #2, #3

Almost 24 hours after the start of the storm, the auroras were still going strong. Canon EOS 50mm lens f 1.8 20 secound exp. Fuji 800

aurora movie
Tracy and Steve Watkins,
Kin George, Virginia, USA
Nov. 20
#1

This is a short AVI of the images we collected on November 20th. The streaks are airplanes as we're right under the Washington DC flight coridor. The pictures were taken with a Sony DSC-F717, ISO 400, 8 sec exposure. Then 36 of them were combined to make the movie.

Gerhard Kupfer,
Bopfingen, Ostalbkreis, Germany
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

Digital Camera Fuji S2 with f2,8/16mm Fishye Lens 30 sec,f2,8, 320iso

Mark Egan,
30 miles west of Houston, Texas, USA
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3

Hello from Houston! I saw that the geomagnetic storm was still going on, so I drove to darker skies west of Houston. I arrived at about 7:15 p.m. (not long after twilight ended) and scanned the northern sky. The result: nothing. But after a few minutes of dark adaptation, I THOUGHT I saw a faint reddish patch in the northeast (the base was about 15 degrees off the horizon, the top of the patch was about 30 degrees off the horizon, and the whole thing was about 10 degrees wide. It would brighten and fade over the next half hour or so.... Even at its "brightest", this small patch of light was barely visible. I should mention that the location was moderately dark . The Milky Way was visible but not bright, through Cygnus, Cassiopeia, and Perseus. M31 was easily visible.

Dr Russell Cockman,
Wallacestone, Scotland
Nov. 20
#1, #2, #3, more

Visible as soon as night fell (around 5:20pm), the aurora was bright enough to shine through the glare of street lights from my home in Wallacestone Scotland. Corona overhead, bright green arc to the SOUTH and beautiful red bands to the west, a lovely show to come home to! Images taken through a Nikon CoolPix 4500 digital camera @ ISO 400, 15-20 sec exposures. Mars is the 'star' shining through the trees in (2).

Vítek Huspenina,
Hluk, Czech Republic
Nov. 20
#1, #2, more

Canon EOS300, obj.28mm, 60s.Exp..3,5/5,6 Fujicolor 200,

Mark Adams,
Ketchikan, Alaska, USA
#1, #2, #3

An active aurora and a clear night -- rare for here. Details: Minolta Maxxum 7000, 400 film, f1.4, 3s exposure.

more: from Michael S Watson of Gaffney, South Carolina, USA; from John Pane of Marshall Township, Pennsylvania, USA;

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