Discussion: Big solar flare - Aurora activity Thurs-Sat nights

There was a big solar flare yesterday. The aurora forcast for the Whitehorse area and Alaska looks very good for Friday and Saturday. Tonight may be worth a look too. Of course it doesn't get dark until almost midnight :) And there's a sliver of moon early in the evening. Parts of Ontario have a shot at seeing something Friday night too. Click on the custom forcast map for your longitude. Maybe if we are very lucky we'll see something during the Vampire-O in NH. There's more info and some cool pics at spaceweather.com. I see that the solar wind is blowing at a pleasant 380 km/s, with a density of 7.2 protons per cubic cm. I think I'll go fly a kite...

My gosh! 380 km/s, with a density of 7.2 protons per cubic cm - that's pretty dense, isn't it? Lucky for us it's moving so fast; otherwise we'd need to worry about coagulation I expect.

No need to worry, J-man. With that density, it's clearly in the gasoeus state. Based on my knowledge of Volmer's classical nucleation theory, chances of coagulation are slim to none.

I assume that special nucleation theories are uneccesary, since the relativistic lorentz distortion at these velocities is only 0.0000802%.

what about my kite?

How big is your kite???

I'm afraid thats outside my field of expertise. I only use Einstien's theories to explain why I accidently overshoot controls. (Distances get shorter and time gets longer when you run to fast!)

Isn't it more of a red shift phenomenon that changes the color of the control at an inopportune time?

Reading Big Eddie's exciting posting, I leapt into cowboy action this morning, and taking advantage of the special reflecting properties of Eagle Rock and a string of unmapped beaver ponds (I don't know why, but the unmapped ones work better), and using some spare barbed wire I had laying in my yard, I quickly jury rigged a rather effective solar flare gathering mechanism. The ideal focal point turned out to be--much to my surprise--the very tippy top of Ames Monument.

Once I have collected up a bunch of solar flare, I am going to sell it to touristos passing by on I-80, marketing it as 100% Wyoming natural and good for you too! It has myriad applications. For instance, the neighbor's cat that has been yowling at night? Next time it climbs on your fence and starts to yowl, you unleash solar flare on it--just a tiny dab will do--and no more cat. Tired of having motorists cut in front of you on your bike while giving you the finger too? You take out your can of solar flare, aim the nozzle, press the button, and, whoosh! No more car or crummy driver either. Got a compass bubble? Well, tough, because there are no cures for compass bubbles, though a few mild curses may make you feel better.

Anyway, I'm going to make lots of money and I will be real happy. I may even sell cotton candy too, if I can find any.

Is it just me or has Attackpoint gone even sillier today?

I think its the flare. Its affecting all of us.

No, Andy, it's definitely just you.

Maybe digestives now carry mad cow disease.

Mmmm, digestives. I'm down to my last kilo.

Well right now its coming down like cats and dogs, so we may not see much in Whitehorse. Raining like Vancouver.
But yesterday evening was sweet. 7.5 km course ("Wednesday Night Event") through awesome fall colours - very enjoyable.

I hope you don't think that I'm being silly Andy.
My lorentz transformations are deadly accurate.

You may be skeptical of relativity theory, but I've seen a direct correlation between my speed and number of mistakes. Furthermore, I'm sure you've noticed how much larger the map scale seems when you're sprinting. Almost three times as big!
Without invoking the distortion of space-time, I can see no logical explanation for these bizarre phenomena.