A coronal mass ejection, not to be confused with the far more problematic EMP (electromagnetic pulse)
We could see a comet. PAN STARRS has made its loop of the sun safely and is coming back, same time same path, only a bit further over…
We could see auroras…
But…we have cloud cover. Sigh.
Comets and meteor showers are how I predict the weather in my town.
Whenever anything worth watching is going on in the sky, I know it’s going to be cloudy. Usually solid clouds from horizon to horizon. Works every time.
I use comets to predict the future, not necessarily the weather. Of course, I could also do what the Romans did, the auspicae, but I am just a bit squeamish about messing with the internal organs of small animals (or any animal for that matter). Comets seem to be safe, though.
DH and I take credit for singlehandedly breaking the back of the drought that has plagued our county for several years, all because WE WANTED TO SEE THE COMET. The clouds rolled in the day before the comet was scheduled to become visible in our area, and there has only been 1 day since when you might have had a chance at seeing PANSTARRS. Everything else has been rain, drizzle, and belligerent mist.
Jane is the only person I know of who was skunked by cloud on a comet cruise AIRPLANE flight.
I remember back in 1986 when Comet Halley made its appearance. I was stationed on Guam at the time, the skies were very clear, and my neighbor had constructed a 12″ Dobsonian telescope out of concrete form tubing. We went stargazing every night, but you know, if you asked me what it looked like, I couldn’t describe Halley. I’m still not sure I really saw it after all these years. IIRC, it wasn’t the spectacular show that it displayed in 1910, and I guess unless I take better care of myself, I won’t see it in 2062. I got into looking up the various stars on a star chart, I was looking for some of the stars I had read about in SF books, such as Canopus (Alpha Carinae), Fomalhaut, as well as the Southern Cross. When I was on my last cruise going around South America, I remember going up on the signal bridge and using the “big eyes” (20 power binoculars mounted on gimbals) to star gaze. My golly, you didn’t need them, you could see the trail of the Milky Way with the naked eye. When you’re 100 miles out to sea, at night, and the only lights are red lights to assist in moving about the ship, you can see a lot of stars. It was funny to see Orion upside down and try to recognize other Northern constellations. Sigh…..I still want a big reflector telescope like I’ve seen David Levy use.
Lol—I saw it with a small telescope from Australia, thanks to the kindness of my hosts. It was just a tiny appearance. The Southern Cross was far more impressive.
Clouds stopped us, too.