Conjunction Moon-Saturn-Mars-Jupiter and Auroras!
Taken by Heiko Ulbricht on April 6, 2000 @
Opitz hill near Tharandt (Conjunction) and near Oberreichenbach (Aurora), Saxony, Germany
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Details:
21 years ago today: the evening and the night from April 6th to 7th, 2000...
First, many star friends across Germany observed the Great conjunction of the moon (46.5 h after new moon) with Saturn (above the moon), Mars and Jupiter. This was already a breathtaking sight! But what happened after the end of dusk left me speechless and my pulse raced!
A northern lights stood in the most beautiful development in the sky over Saxony! It was my first aurora in my life. I only discovered it by accident when I stopped my car at an intersection and looked north! What was that? An extremely bright, green light over the northern horizon. Quickly pulled to the side of the road, got out and looked up. I stayed away from spit! Red beamers passed quickly in front of the starry sky. I knew what I was seeing here! While I was recording the constellation on the Opitz hill near Tharandt, I photographed the aurora borealis near Oberreichenbach, 25 km east of Chemnitz, because I lived up there at the time and was almost on my way home. The film in the camera was completely exposed due to the constellation, luckily I was able to find another one!
You don't forget something like that ... Unfortunately, after the constellation, many star friends did not enjoy the northern lights, either go to rest or devote themselves to other things. Hardly anyone expected that ... Taken on film with the PRAKTICA MTL 5B.
The trigger for the northern lights was a filament eruption on the sun, which caused a G4 storm. The KP index was 9 (!), DST index -288 nT, Bz value -33.2 nT. It was the first "Internet Northern Lights" and the beginning of systematic PL monitoring in Central Europe thanks to the then relatively new medium "Internet" and "E-Mail"! From this time until 2004 the sun entered a highly active phase, the 23rd sunspot cycle, which was to produce further, sometimes enormous, auroras over Central Europe in the following years. Unfortunately, we can only dream of that at the moment ...!
Photographer's website:
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