The Aurora of March 22–23

Abstract

I HAD a fine view of this superb display at Workington between midnight and 1 o'clock a.m., in a clear and bright starlit sky. The whole sky was filled with the light except a small area in the south-east. I could detect no colour except creamy-white, the general intensity being, to my mind, at times equal to full moonlight. Curtains of light surrounded a point just east of the zenith, which seemed to mark the “hub” of the display. The bright star (a) in Canes Venatici almost exactly marked this point, and filmy sheets of light seemed to dash upwards from the south-west and north-east horizons and merge together at this star. The only display I have ever seen to equal this was on 1907 February 14 at Motherwell, in the previous sun-spot maximum period. It was the fact that I could see the great sun-spot train on March 22 without telescopic aid that made me expect and look out for the aurora that night.