So, there is was - finally. The last outbreak, a major one, passed by me without i saw the hint of any auroras. Which i thought was utterly strange. This time, it was a bit better. Despite the Auroras actually covering the ZENITH, they were in itself rather weak / not very bright. The camera however, had now trouble to capture both curtains, colors and the streaky details, like overlapping comets tails at times.

But they were... well, not very bright. Large, covering big portions of the sky. But not overly bright. Sal did see a little bit with his naked eyes - but it wasn't impressive really. Partially due to our location being part of the inner circle of suburbs of bright artificial Stockholm lights.

The Artifical Light Issue

Our balcony however is still a formidable position, because the one spot we used to have for night observations - has been destroyed by the city administration - who put three enormously bright, huge light poles at the very place, that was like an oasis for night observation, only 450 m from where we live. Incredibly sad. It was almost a magical place without any direct light sources in your view. Now, it is an awful, light overflowing place at night.

Those flood lights are switched ON all night.

Eco friendly & energy saving, my ass. And NO fuck is there at night.

BS of the finest, like so many other Eco and Bio strategies, that when you scrutinize them, they often do the opposite of what they supposed to accomplish.

A sad state of affairs.

Lucky enough though

At first the sky was entirely overcast, when I realized that the auroral oval had a strength of 100 GW input, and the kp index was around 6-7. It then weakened to 5.5 but the clouds largely disappeared (moved towards the east).

• almost entirely overcast at 00.00

• first signs to see Auroas in towards the N/NNW around 00.03

• Weak but large surface auroras are appearing (higher up in the sky) at around 00.21

• Party time at 00.23

• Party time at 00.23

• 00.26 - Der Himmel hängt voller Geigen, und die Sterne stehen still || "The sky is filled with violins - the stars standing still"