[Grasshopper]

Moral to the story: Not good to live where you can enjoy the Northern Lights but the local hardware store only sells a thermometer that registers
from -50F to +50F!!

Yellow Knife, Canada

Yellow Knife, Canada

Yellow Knife, Canada

[SuperstitionGuy]

Look more carefully Grasshopper. It's not F but C as in centigrade..

[Dschur]

The northern lights are visible in AZ I have seen them here about 6 times or more and we have photographed them more than that just waiting now on the sunspot cycle to be out of the minimal.

[azdesertfather]

The northern lights are visible in AZ I have seen them here about 6 times or more and we have photographed them more than that just waiting now on the sunspot cycle to be out of the minimal.

where have you seen them? and which months?

[Rob del Desierto]

I'd like to see them down here as well, that'd be amazing.

[chumley]

Google aurora galleries arizona. I've read that they have been seen well into Mexico during periods of high solar activity.

There's a photo from Payson with a familiar looking name...

[Dschur]

Google schurs astrophotography and we have lots of aurora pictures on there. I can post when the KP is high enough to see them in az but you can watch spaceweather. They have a service that you can order that will call you on your phone to tell you when they are at a certain level when it gets to 6 on the KP scale we have them call and Chris will go out and set up the aurora camera with the fish eye lens on it. Right now we are on the low edge of the sunspot cycle so won't be soon probably it seems to correspond with the sunspot cycle. Just have to wait for a cornal hole facing earth.... You really can't say when it is like predicting the weather. It is in the north and the best bet is to be north of a city with no city lights to the north of you to tell like we have at our house in Payson. Off the balcony we have a good view of the north. And it peaks in just a few minutes to all night. We have had short one and ones that lasted the whole night. The reason you see so many in the winter from canada and alaska is that they have longer darker nights. (no nights in summer)

[Rob del Desierto]

We've got pretty dark nights around here, especially when I'm out on the Paria. That would be totally awesome to see.

[Dschur]

Yeah that would be a good place with a nice dark northern sky. It is really hard to say when they are to be we get phone call when it is at storm level but that could be for a few minutes to all night. Just always keep you eyes to the north at night and look for orange. That is the color that come the fartest. We have seen some yellow and green and blue but faint and at a really good night.

[Dschur]

Here is a shot of a few hours of an aurora on December 14 2006 from Payson Arizona....

And one that was one of the best in Payson in 2001...

Here is the chart we look at in order to tell if it is at storm level or not (maybe something in the next couple of days) this is from 2001.