Green glow in sky over Leeds

[Minds]

On 14th feb 2010 at about 2030pm I noticed a bright green/blue diffuse glow high in the sky. It was about the size and brightness you'd expect with the glow from an exceptionally bright full moon but it was a new moon that night. The glow appeared to be behind the clouds and seemed to move closer to the horizon overthe course of about 30 mins. I think it moved towards the west. I haven't heard anything in the press or on Internet sites about this and I'm completely stumped as to what it could be. I spend quite a lot of time staring at the sky but I've never seen anything like this. Any ideas what it could have been?

[captain nodge]

Hi, could be Northen Lights!! going back 20 odd years i saw something similar in Wiltshire, and heard that for some reason the aura boreilis,(excuse spelling), was visible farther south than normal, it was quite spectacular and never had a camera at the time, could maybe also have something to do with the suns new activity. CN

[Doggle Avaddit]

Originally Posted by Minds

On 14th feb 2010 at about 2030pm I noticed a bright green/blue diffuse glow high in the sky. It was about the size and brightness you'd expect with the glow from an exceptionally bright full moon but it was a new moon that night. The glow appeared to be behind the clouds and seemed to move closer to the horizon overthe course of about 30 mins. I think it moved towards the west. I haven't heard anything in the press or on Internet sites about this and I'm completely stumped as to what it could be. I spend quite a lot of time staring at the sky but I've never seen anything like this. Any ideas what it could have been?

I have often seen lights projected into the sky over Leeds. Only tonight we were watching some kind of spotlight sweeping over the night sky. I guess its some kind of commercial advertising/attention seeking scenario. Maybe the Circus is in town.

It can be quite impressive, as you can only see the beam when it illuminates a cloud, so it almost looks like the clouds are spontaneously illuminating themselves, or are being lit from above.

[Minds]

Thanks for the replies. It definitely wasn't anything projected from the ground. The light definitely came from above the clouds because there were lower lying clouds that weren't illuminated. I often see lights projected from Leeds city centre etc and this was nothing like that. It was a generalised, diffuse light. Similar to the glow over the horizon just before dawn, but in the middle of the sky.

I thought of the aurora borealis but I just can't believe there'd be no reference to that anywhere in the news or on astronomy sites! I remember seeing the aurora borealis over Leeds about 25 years ago and it was in all the papers the next day.

[Richard G.]

You can look at the aurora activity graphs at Lancaster Universities AuroraWatch website.

Archive suggests no activity on the 14th though

It's worth subscribing to their alerts if you're interested in confirming or preempting aurora sightings though.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Richard G.

It's worth subscribing to their alerts if you're interested in confirming or preempting aurora sightings though.

I've been subscribed to 'aurora watch' alerts for years, but haven't been notified for a couple of years now.

Jim

[Richard G.]

I know there was some threat to their funding a couple of years ago Jim, but think they got it sorted out in the end.

The lack of activity is more likely because we've been at the bottom of the 22-year cycle for the last few years, so activity has been naturally very low and I read somewhere that the low has been quieter than usual too.

I believe we're back on the way up again now though, with the next maximum in 2013. I also recall reading that the predictions were for a very strong maximum in this cycle, though they later toned down that prediction, but still a a good chance of seeing the odd display in England perhaps?

[captain nodge]

When it started in Wiltshire, there was just a green luminessence to start with, then after running to show a mate it had gone, yeah whatever he said and went back inside, as me n girlfriend were walking back it started again, only this time really colourfull it came overhead behind the clouds and looked as though a ufo was going to popout, this was in the daytime too, never forget that, one magic moment, never knew what it was till few days later,so hope it is A/B and that it gets real good 4 ya

[Johnny Redgate]

Yes - I remember it too, I stood on the hill at West Wycombe and watched the whole sky go green and red with moving curtains of light - the works. I'd only gone outside to the phone box. I ended accosting passers by to get them to look at the sky and phoned my parents to get them outside to look too. You know the scene from Local Hero when Mac's in the phone box speaking to his boss and says something like "Wow, the whole sky just turned red ....". Well I was just like that. It would be winter early 1989 because that's when I was working for the National Trust at West Wycombe.

[captain nodge]

Originally Posted by Richard G.

You can look at the aurora activity graphs at Lancaster Universities AuroraWatch website.

Archive suggests no activity on the 14th though

It's worth subscribing to their alerts if you're interested in confirming or preempting aurora sightings though.

Nice one for this link, signed in straight away,

Only ever had one really mad sky since Wiltshire, and that was here in Rye, the night before Nostrodamas prophecy of armageddon, sky went absolulty red/orange like the crazyest sunset ever all overhead, again expected riders of the apocolypse to come charging out,think it was 97 98,got photos too on 35mm, dont do it justice though,never found out what caused that sky,