Auroras

[Peter B]

I've never seen an aurora, but every picture and bit of film suggests they're an impressive sight.

But one thing gets me when watching footage. Without a time scale, I can't tell whether I'm watching in real time or time-lapse.

So can those of you in the know please tell me, is it a static show, or is there action to watch?

[Hale_Bopp]

Aurora can vary quite a bit. I have only seen a few of them (too much time spent living too far south) but I have seen a few on trips up north. They vary quite a bit. Faint aurora tend to not show much vairation from my experience. I have seen a couple of relatively bright aurora that vary on the time scale of 10 - 30 seconds. If you looked away and looked back about a minute later, you definitely say many changes.

I have heard that they can flicker rapidly, but I have never seen one that good!

Rob