YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD about the “coronal mass ejection” on the sun — aka a solar flare — earlier this week, and the possibility that it will create a geomagnetic storm and the brightly dancing lights known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
The northern sky seems reasonably clear, but we aren’t hearing any aurora reports at the moment.
Supposedly the best time to see the northern lights will be after midnight, with viewing best away from city lights like from the turnouts on the road to Hurricane Ridge.
Look for an unobscured view of the northern horizon. The lights will most likely be close to the horizon.
While the aurora is often bright red and green in the higher latitudes of Canada and Alaska, the lights may be far more subtle and muted for North Olympic Peninsula viewers.
In addition to city lights obscuring the auroras, a waning gibbous moon that rose tonight at 9:39 p.m. could further hamper the view.
Cameras do a much better job of picking up auroras than the naked eye. A dazzling display often can be captured with long time exposures.
Let us know if you see anything.
And if you do get any photos, we’d love to see them. You can Tweet them to us @PenDailyNews or email them to jbrewer@peninsuladailynews.com.
