Tonight's watchQuiet until eleven, then the curtain.
A fast stream left the sun three days ago and reaches the magnetosphere after dusk. Expect a pale arc low in the north, rising to moving bands and — if the field tips south — a full corona overhead. Drag the Kp dial above to see what each level looks like from our ridge.
LIKELIHOOD OF VISIBLE AURORA, HOURLY · MODEL RUN 16:00 LOCAL · UPDATED BY HAND WHEN THE ANTENNA ICES
InstrumentsThree ways of paying attention.
The Hallan all-sky camera
A fisheye eye under a heated glass blister. One exposure every eleven seconds since 1994 — over twenty million frames of the same patch of dark.
Fluxgate magnetometer “Old Needle”
Buried two metres under the moraine, away from every nail and stove. It feels a substorm half a minute before our eyes do.
The 40 cm Brekke reflector
Not for aurora at all. On still nights we open the slit, turn south, and let visitors find Saturn for themselves.
Winter residencyFour bunks, one stove, no lamps after nine.
Polar night
The sun does not rise. Twenty hours of observing sky; blue noon for skiing down to the fjord.
Returning light
Equinox storms and the season's brightest displays. Dog sled supply run every Thursday.
Night keeper
Sit one watch with the duty observer. Log the arcs in pencil, as it has always been done.