I have seen the aurora several times during my 39 years. The most memorable was in the early 40's (1940's that is 8) while living on my uncles farm. all of us kids had already gone to bed when my uncle called from downstairs for all of us to get up and go outside to the middle of the lawn. It was a wide open area and beyond the lawn were gardens and fields. We had a view in a 360º area with barely an obstruction to that view. None of us children had ever even heard of Northern Lights, let alone having seen. I think it was in 1943. i remember a few years ago that somebody had written the date as having been the most extensive display in the last 100 years, or some such period. I have seen the lights a few times since, but they were always limited to the northern reaches of the sky, sometimes only white lite and very dim. On that very first experience, the entire sky was being lit up with flares of every color of the rainbow. Flashes were shooting to the southern horizon and directly overhead were flashes dancing every which way. I suppose from later observations, the flashes were only heading up towards the ionosphere, but to a ten or twelve year old, they were shooting every which way. Even my great uncle said he had never seen such a display. Before he had moved to Clayton, in Soutern Massachusetts (Berkshires), he had been a civil engineer and surveyor traveling all over Canada as well as most of the northern states from Maine to the Mississippi.
I have heard on radio many times that the aurora would be visible on a given nite and i would watch for them so i could show my kids and my wife. THE BOSS has seen them, but my kids are now in their late 40's (they are, in fact, older than I [unsure]) They have never seen them. There is just too much light from surrounding towns that floods the sky. It is seldom we can see the Milky Way either. Some of the constellations I used to be able to pick out of the sky now have pieces that seem to be missing. I don't really believe that we have caused global warming, but we sure have screwed up the visabilty to see the stars, and worst of all, our children and granchildren may never see the Aurora Borealis without traveling far to the north.
I'll bet Frank has had great views from his island. He is far enough north that I'll bet there have been times when he could see the entire sky lit up with flashes as I have described and seen only one time. When I was riding motorcycle, I got to see them a few times while riding in Northern VT, NH and Maine. But in last 50 years, not from Connecticut. [crying]
Tinker
