[Lowfer] Lovely Aurora Down South

Fri, 21 Nov 2003 00:14:22 -0600

The northern horizon looks like the glow of the pending morning sun, as it
would be looking to the east on a clear morning. There are huge columns of
white light protruding out of the horizon sky with huge waves of bright
white light swooping overhead. A shooting star flew by heading NW. This is
so beautiful this morning. I wished I had Friday off work so I could just
stay out and watch the dancing lights. It is times like this that make one
appreciate living up in the cold north.

Mike>WE0H

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of John Davis
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 11:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Lovely Aurora Down South

>They are all the way to about 40 degrees south in Minnesota
>with huge waves of bright white light.

Wow.  That's amazing, Mike.  Do dig out that Natural Radio gear.  The Yahoo
reflector on the subject has carried reports of heavy auroral-related
activity since late this morning, even before the storm reached severe
levels.

An unusual "wireless" connection to aurorae, by the way.  I've been
gradually gathering material for a LOWDOWN article next spring on the 19th
century wireless telegraphy experiments of Mahlon Loomis.  Ol' doc may have
sniffed too much nitrous oxide, as he was convinced he could draw unlimited
amounts of power from the "river" of electricity flowing above the lower
atmosphere.  To support his notion, his speeches sometimes cited examples of
currents induced in landline telegraph circuits during auroral displays:

"On the 2d of September, 1859, communications were sent over the wire
between South Braintree and Fall River stations in Massachusetts, a distance
of 40 miles, with the aid of the celestial battery alone. This was during
the appearance of the Northern lights, which are computed to be, on the
average, from two to five miles in height..."

Further blinding us with science:

    "De la Rire says: 'The Aurora, or Northern lights, is due to electric
discharges taking place in the polar regions between the positive
electricity of the atmosphere and the negative electricity of the earth.'
    "This is DOUBTLESS true and correct, but I will go further and say also
that it is only the accidental reunion of the two electricities, and that it
can be brought about regularly and constantly by artificial and suitably
established means as well."

The emphasis on "doubtless" is mine.  Never a good word to use before the
tools exist to doublecheck one's speculations.  Now that we have better
evidence to go on, the process and the magnitude of energies behind the
Northern and Southern Lights turns out to be much grander than our
"scientific" ancestors supposed...and all the more inaccessible to tampering
by us mere mortals.  We can interact with the event by monitoring natural
radio, working on VHF, etc., but mostly we're left to simply observe it in
awe.

John D

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