Aurora in the Backyard
On the night of
March 17/18
this umbrella of northern lights
unfolded over backyards in Vallentuna, Sweden about
30 kilometers north of Stockholm.
A result of the strongest geomagnetic storm of this solar cycle,
auroral displays were captured on that night
from back
and front yards at even lower latitudes,
including sightings in the midwestern United States.
A boon for
aurora hunting skywatchers, the
space storm began building when a
coronal mass ejection,
launched by solar activity
some two days earlier, struck planet Earth's magnetosphere.
So what's the name of the backyard observatory on the right of the wide
field view?
That's Carpe Noctem
Observatory, of course.