Curious whether any of our northern friends saw the Aurora Borealis last night. It was supposed to be pretty spectacular due to the major solar flare that occurred Tuesday night - they were predicting it should be visible as far south as the Great Lakes region. Unfortunately last night here in Illinois it was rainy and overcast, so we couldn't see it. Tonight should be clearer, so I'm hoping to see something. And for those board members from Oz or other southern hemisphere countries - the Aurora Australis ought to be pretty good too.

I believe it will continue through tonight as the flair was massive .

According to this article:
Biggest Solar Storm in Years Is Bombarding Earth Now - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-solar-storm-years-bombarding-earth-now-064402504.html)
The coronal mass ejection reached earth at about 5:30 AM Eastern Std Time, and its effects should last about 24 hours. Unfortunately there is a full moon tonight which will wash out the night sky a bit, making any aurora display somewhat more difficult to see. But here's hoping for clear skies!

Here is another image of the event provided by NASA .

http://postmediamontreal.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/509465087mt.jpg

Photo of the Day: March 7, 2012 – Northern lights generator | Montreal Gazette (http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/03/07/photo-of-the-day-march-7-2012-northern-lights-generator/)

I'll check it tonight. Maybe even try to get a pic.

Hi Karma I saw the news but the aurora is usually not visible in the latitude I live at. I have seen it once in my life, hope you have a great spectacle

Canada is indeed privy to this wonderful spectacle fairly often. I can't tell you how full of wonder my kids were when we first happened upon the northern lights by hazard one night.

Here is the Northern Lights from Iceland .

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2012/09mar12/aftershock_strip.jpg

I live just west of Chicago Il. Our area was listed as a FAIR chance of seeing the lights. Last night was clear and zip, nada. Only seen the lights in Illinois twive in the last 10 years.

I live just west of Chicago Il. Our area was listed as a FAIR chance of seeing the lights. Last night was clear and zip, nada.

Same here - too many street lights in the Chicagoland 'burbs spoiling the night sky. But it turned out that on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being least, this solar storm rated only a 1, so perhaps the whole thing was over-hyped.

Chicago Tribune said pretty much the same, big flop. That can be good since a big solar flare is not a good thing.

It all depends on where it is directed and so we missed the bullet

From the NBC map last night it looks like all of the USA was in a poor or fair location for seeing the lights. That does not mean we could not have electronic interference .

I'm also about 35 miles west of Chicago and I was out for a look, nothing. However my home security system went down for about an hour and started up again on its own, maybe not connected to this though.

Stringer

It probably was . This report says there was a 'tail end' effect that should continue through the weekend .
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/earth-braces-biggest-space-storm-five-years-020630067.html

Stringer, I am just10 minutes west of you, no lights either. I was reading an email on my droid and noticed I had 4 bars. No bars, 4 bars... it went up and down like a roller coaster for a few minutes. Think that was caused by the flare.

I am also having weird things happen with my cell (Droid). Listened to two missed voice mails and before I could react it automatically deleted the messages, happened twice in a row with two messages.

Reports are the aurora was seen in my home town at the weekend. Seems I always choose the wrong time to go away or sleep. Very odd to get it at these latitudes

More northern lights expected tomorrow . The same solar spot unleased another coronal mass ejection (CME) flare Tuesday that is racing towards Earth now. The flare was categorized as an M7.9-class eruption .
SOLAR ACTIVITY UPDATE: M7.9-Class Solar Flare/CME/Proton Event (March 13th, 2012). - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQv4-BQNk1w)