WEDNESDAY AURORA Following the last alert that I emailed to you on Tuesday night about the aurora possibly occurring on Tuesday to Thursday night(s) hundreds of you saw it on Wednesday night and have emailed and TEXTed sightings. It was quite a spectacular show at times and was greeted by clear skies over much of Ireland on Wednesday night. Most of the time the aurora was just a glow in the north but on several occasions from 6pm to 4am activity flared dramatically with bright rays, curtains, and reds seen. I even saw rays converging at the zenith (overhead point) and the aurora extended a little beyond the zenith at times. A very good show but not as good as was to come the next night (Thursday night), of which more in a moment. People in cities were disappointed if they just took a quick look at the sky in the north and they happened to view during a 'quiet' patch but I saw rays from brightly lit parts of Dublin after midnight, when the aurora was active. So do persevere and watch for hours (at least a half an hour anyway). Try to get away from city lights - at the very least the aurora will look better. We got extensive media coverage on Wednesday and made the front cover/page10 of the Irish Times on Thursday morning plus we were on the RTE TV news at 5pm, 6pm, 9pm and 11pm on Wednesday. RTE even despatched a crew with a satellite link up to film the aurora with us from a dark site in north county Dublin. They got great footage using a camera that can shoot 3 frames a second in very low light levels. See http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1029/9news/9news56_5a.smil RTE did a great job and you saw genuine 'Irish' footage and not some imported report. I did lots of other radio reports least notably being on Today FM with Ray D'Arcy who was more interested in matters sartorial, asking if the young ladies interviewed on TV about the "colours" were commenting on the aurora or my colourful ski suit! (Only joking Ray if you're reading this :-) THURSDAY AURORA BIGGER Then on Thursday night an even BIGGER aurora was seen from the southwest of Ireland! From emails, TEXTs, calls received it looks like most of Kerry, a bit of Limerick(its SW) and west Cork had clear skies (satellite images confirmed this). Reports from the second night of the "Great October 2003 Aurorae" say the landscape was lit up by the brightness of the display, corona (where the rays meet up overhead and look like a 'crown') were seen, movement was clearly seen in real time on a second-to-second timescale, and the aurora stretched from the north, overhead and down to within 15 degrees of the South horizon! I was in Dublin and checked the skies every few hours on Thursday night but it was always cloudy, and raining most of the time. If anyone else saw the massive Thursday show do email observe@astronomy.ie A longer report will appear in our magazine, along with some stunning images (subscribe NOW if you don't already, so you will get this 'aurora souvenir issue'). We are especially seeking pictures of the Thursday aurora yet, so send NOW if you got any! NEXT AURORA! Almost unbelievably, Halloween (Friday night) looks set for yet another aurora. Will it be better than Wednesday? Or as good as Thursday? it could be! Or will it occur at all? You'll have to go out and see, but there was a second huge solar flare on Wednesday night (our time) that hurled more material toward the Earth that should keep the aurora going on Friday night. More explosions on the Sun are likely incoming days so do expect more aurorae in the coming days, possibly every night until the end of next week, which will bring us up to the Total Eclipse Nov. 8! If you see an aurora do TEXT 086 081 99 86 giving your name and location. Then email a fuller report to observe@astronomy.ie as soon as you can while it is still fresh in your memory. Please email photos to that address also (you can post prints to our P.O.Box below) Don't forget to take a look at the huge sunspots causing all this activity! Make sure you put AstroSolar filter in front of your binoculars or telescopes of course! Call and we can post a sheet. AND FINALLY, All this activity is distracting us from three huge terrestrial gatherings on Irish soil! Nov. 8 - Total Eclipse of the Moon. We have Watches all around Ireland, see www.astronomy.ie. ORDER the eclipse issue of our magazine NOW so we can post it to you in time, and support Astronomy Ireland. Go to www.astronomy.ie/sub and select "current issue for 5euro" or call or drop in to our Shop in Artane. Nov. 10 & 11 - Our INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER this year is J. Tate director of SpaceGuard UK who will talk about "The Threat from Space" and what is being done about it as you are more likely to be killed by an asteroid than in a plane crash! Dublin City University Mon. Nov. 10 and Jury's Hotel Cork Nov. 11. Ticket only so you must call to book seats now. Nov. 15 and 16 - ASTRO-EXPO 2003 in Dublin City University. Ireland's biggest annual astronomy event where everyone in Ireland travels to Dublin for the biggest astronomy and space exhibition and a weekend of talks. The guests of honour at the Dinner Saturday evening are the Beagle 2 team who are landing their craft on Mars on Christmas Day. Book the weekend pass (20euro) and the Dinner - you owe it to yourself! See http://www.astronomy.ie/astroexpo.html NOTE: The Sunday keynote speaker is Gerry Hogan from Coronado Solar Filters USA - very appropriate with the unprecedented sunspots! Also, as well as the Beagle 2 team from the UK on Saturday we have managed to get Prof Susan McKenna-Lawlor Ireland's most popular space scientists who has agreed to tear herself away from 8 spacecraft experiments she is building or has launched! If you are NOT coming to Astro-Expo this year please tell me why! Aurora and Sunspot reports will feature at all of the above events, especially Astro-Expo. P.S. If you would like to help run our non-profit society (as one of our volunteers - there are a whole host of activities) please let me know as we are snowed under at present! (allow a few days for me to reply but do email now!) ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open until 6pm Mon.-Sat. Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe FREE to AI's Events emailing list) Email: info@astronomy.ie