Stargazing + Aurora (publ. 2025-11-27)

published 2025-11-27

by Christopher Howard

I went out yesterday evening (2025-11-26) around 8:45pm for stargazing out in the front yard. Temperature was around 1 ℉, and despite wearing my thick winter pants, two coats, a winter hat, a hood, my winter boots, and my heated gloves, I still felt cold. I had some snowpants somewhere but lost track of them.

I discovered that, regardless of which battery I attach to it, my left heated glove does not turn on. I suppose I'll need to rip that glove open and see if I can find a loose wire or something.

When I got outside, the eastern sky seemed very bright, from the light pollution. Also, street lights and car lights and house lights were glaring brightly at me from every direction, so it was difficult to build up good night vision for naked eye star gazing. But I tried my best. Because of the tall trees and because of the position of my porchlight, I can't look to the western or northern sky very easily.

I stayed outside for about 1.25 hours, and my patience was rewarded by a few occasional spurts of aurora, lasting about two or three minutes each:

One huge river of dull green, stretching from the eastern sky to the northern sky
One long curvy band above and to the south, that was well defined, and had some touches of pink
A small, wavy, dancing spot towards the NE

As far as stargazing goes, I brought out my binoculars and took a quick look at Jupiter, which was just clearing an apartment building in the NE sky, a little down from and to the right of two stars which I think were Castor and Pollux. I observed three moons on the right side. To the right of the two brights stars were a triangle of stars which I think was 64, 65, and ι Gemini, hardly visible with the naked eye, but clearly visible with the binocs.

With the naked eye, I recall five main stars in Auriga, plus the small triangle of stars near Capella. I could see Perseus as well, but it was too high of an angle to view comfortably.

I stared at Taurus for a good while, being able to see about six stars, including I think θ¹ and θ². I looked around it a bit with the binocs as well, enjoying the hexagon stars, as well as that separate grouping of stars above the top horn.

With the naked eye, I could see five stars of the Pleiades clearly, with a sixth one popping into view sometimes. I was awe-struck as usual with the binocular view, though the angle was pretty high, so I didn't spend too long on that. The higher angles are not easy on the neck and lower back.

Toward the end of my stargazing, the belt of Orion became visible just above a tree toward the east, and so I recognized the top half of Orion. I thought about trying Orion with the binocs, but that part of the sky was very bright, and it looked like my viewing lenses were starting to frost over, so instead I went back inside.

Often I think how nice it would be to get away from the bright city lights for stargazing, like I used to do, but these days even a trip out into the yard feels like a major undertaking. Maybe I'll try the boat launch again sometime, if I can get an evening when no one is likely to be there. My SUV has been having some mechanical issues lately, and doesn't seem to produce a lot of heat in the cab, so I'm not sure if that is the best plan.

Copyright

CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed