1339

A very large sunspot group known as sunspot 1339 has recently appeared on the sun's surface. It is highly active, and over the weekend there is a good chance that it will eject a lot of high-energy charged particles in the direction of the Earth. If this happens, it is possible that we might get a good display of the Northern Lights as this "solar wind" interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. These were reported as nearby as Pocklington last month, so it isn't out of the question that something might be visible. You can keep an eye on the coloured box at the top right of this page - green means "no chance", but orange (or better still red) means that we might be in for a show. Lancaster University's Aurora Watch monitoring site can provide much more information, and is a good one to bookmark.