Observation by Robin Leadbeater: Aurora Spectrum Animation

Uploaded by

Robin Leadbeater

Observer

Robin Leadbeater

Observed

2024 Oct 10 - 22:50

Uploaded

2024 Oct 31 - 00:08

Objects

Aurora

Equipment

Celestron C11 f5.5
ALPY 200 spectrograph
All Sky camera (ZWO ASI220mm with fish eye lens)

Exposure

Spectra 2min per frame. Image 10sec per frame at 1 min intervals

Location

Wigton Cumbria UK

Target name

Aurora Borealis

Title

Aurora Spectrum Animation

About this image

The Aurora was too bright to make the observations of faint objects I planned so I parked the scope pointing at the pole and left it taking low resolution (~45A) spectra of the sky for about an hour and a half while I stood and enjoyed the show.

The animation shows the evolution of the spectrum over this period (interpolated at 1min/frame) alongside the (heavily compressed) all sky camera images, approximately synchronised with the spectra. The region being observed is indicated by the asterisk.

The intensity of most of the lines vary in sync with the Oxygen line at 5577A in the green but the Oxygen line at 6300/6364A in the red appears to vary independently to some degree and during the period of high intensity seems to lag the 5577A line (The effect of the long de-excitation time for that line at almost 2 mins compared with the other lines perhaps ?)

Files associated with this observation

aurora_20241010_combined_annotated.gif (3.0 MB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, Nick Quinn, Callum Potter, Graham Winstanley, Dominic Ford, Alun Halsey, Hugh Allen

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