4 May 1998: Laramie, Wyoming

Unlike the previous night, I wasn't going to let the Moon get the better of me. However, some of the predictions were that the best display might be on the next night, so this display still caught me a little off-guard.

First, from my weather log at home (in local 24-hour time):
SP 2217 either I'm confused by moonlight reflecting off of clouds, or we have a tremendous auroral display in progress
SP 2226 confirmed, Boulder up to K=7; storm conditions across the board, heading out

And then the log from my observing site, again local time (UT-6), with the frame number from the two different rolls of film:

10:46 - both clouds and aurora, large diffuse glow with possible rays to 30 degrees NNW, NE
10:51 - glow pretty bright
10:57 - #13 28mm f/5.6 30s, aurora 90 degrees wide, rays to 40 degres, shooting photos NNE
11:00+ - #14 30s N, looking good
11:01+ - #15 f/3.5 30 s
11:04+ - #16 30s
11:06+ - #17 30s, nice display despite Moon, fewer clouds
11:10:10 - #18 30s, wind below 10 [the temperature was in the upper 30s]
11:11:30 - #19 30s
11:13:50 - #20 30s
11:15:35 - #21 30s, diffuse glow up to 20 degrees
11:18 - diffuse glow to 25 degrees
11:19:30 - #22 30s
11:21 - up to 30 degrees, 120 degrees across, huge, center at bearing 015
11:22:30 - #23 30s, pencil beam NE, kink in low arc there [this showed up very well in the photo and should give some idea that I was able to see visually just about everything that I photographed]
11:23:40 - #24 30s, glow near 40 degrees, even wider
11:25:00 - #25 30s, rays to 50 degrees

Of course, Murphy's Law applied here; just as the display was going nuts, I had to reload my camera.

11:28:15 - #3 30s
11:29:10 - #4 30s, fantastic!!
11:30:00 - #5 30s
11:30:40 - #6 15s, red ENE
11:31:50 - #7 30s
11:33:50 - #8 30s, sideways framing, ENE, getting fainter
11:36:25 - #9 30s, some activity due E, brightening N
11:38:15 - #10 30s
11:42:00 - #11 30s, 35mm f/4, much fainter, will go home and come back

From my weather log at home (I use a hybrid of the old National Weather Service observation codes, the new METAR codes, and some of my own; if you are dying to know what all of this means just ask):
SA 2359 C00 W9910(2) T37/MM A3000 (000S/65) FEW CLDS AURBO M70.5/34.5 just got back; AURBO still visible in yard

After checking some information on the Net and finding out that the K-indicies had been consistantly around 8, I headed back out.

12:54 - back, 10 degree tall low band, a few clouds about to interfere
1:01:20 - #12 30s, 35mm f/4, few weak rays
1:10 - looks a bit like last November, but a few degrees higher
1:20 - no change
1:23 - brightening with a few rays forming
1:26:10 - #13 65s, some rays NW with possible red, clouds there too
1:31:00 - #14 30s, arc getting brighter
1:32 - rays NNW to 30 degrees, faint
1:32:55 - #15 30s, ray N to 40 degrees
1:35 - still brightening in plaes and rays (faint) to 40 degrees
1:37:25 - #16 30s sideways, bright ray up to 50 NNE!
1:39:15 - #17 60s sideways, settling down some
1:40 - arc fainter with poorer definition
1:44:30 - #18 30s sideways
1:47 - faint, but large and diffuse
1:52:25 #19 60s sideways, few good rays, but faint overall
1:56 - may be reorganizing again
2:00 - has been some faint rays to 30
2:04 - faint, not much happening, Moon getting low
2:11 - brightening bearing 015
2:15 - not much happening
2:33:45 - local Moonset over the mountains
2:34 - faint, low diffuse glow, maybe weak structure
2:44 - nothing worth staying for

All photos were taken with a 28mm f/3.5 zoom lens wide-open, except for the first photo which was at f/5.6, and the last photo which was taken with a 35mm f/2.8 lens set at f/4. From the list above, I have included the following photos: 1st roll - 13, 17, 23, 24, and 25; 2nd roll - 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, and 16. Both rolls of film were Kodak Royal Gold 1000. In most of the photos, you can see Vega and Lyra in the right-hand portion of the frame.

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File last modified: 01 December 2004