October 2003
Aurora Gallery
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Summary: It's northern autumn and that means it's aurora season. The auroras on this page were triggered by a coronal mass ejection hitting Earth on Oct. 30th. The CME was hurled into space by one of the most powerful solar explosions in years--an X11-class flare from giant sunspot 486. See also the September 2003 aurora gallery.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.


  Photographer, Location Images Comments

Brett Clapper, Shelby, North Carolina, USA
Oct. 31
#1, #2, #3

B. Clapper: "I stepped outside around 7:00 pm local time and was amazed to see rosy-red aurora from the north to north-east! I called everyone from our astonomy club right away, one guy was in the shower - wonder if he got his towel on! These photos are from a Canon 10d at 20 to 30 seconds each."

Hans Coeckelberghs, Hamme-Mille, Belgium
Oct. 31
#1, #2, #3, more

H. Coeckelberghs: "In the early hours of the night, the aurora was very bright. I've never seen this before and it was a beautiful experience."

Russ Cahn, Hughesville, Maryland, USA
Oct. 31
#1

R. Cahn: "Wonderful aurora at 7pm EST in Hughesville, MD. Photo taken with a Canon G2 10 seconds at F2.0 400 ASA.

Andrew Felknor, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA
Oct. 31
#1

Photo details: Olympus e-20n at f:2.4, 60 second exposure

Lauri Kangas, Caledon, Ontario, Canada
Oct. 31
#1, more

L. Kangas: "The aurora activity tonight was phenomenal!"

Matthias Greiner-Petter, Korschenbroich, Germany
Oct. 31
#1, #2

none

Lonnie Ganz, 39,000 ft above Ontario, Canada
Oct. 29
#1, #2

L. Ganz: "I'm a pilot and took a few pictures of the solar storm over Ontario tonight."

George Varros, Mount Airy, Maryland, USA
Oct. 31
#1, #2

G. Varros: "One word: Wow! Best I've ever seen from Maryland. These auroras blotted out the stars in the background sky. Utterly incredible! Both images are composed of three 8 second exposures added together. Imaged with a Nikon CP 950."

Jay S. Curtis, Galway, New York, USA
Oct. 31
#1

none

Jerry Xiaojin Zhu, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Oct. 31
#1, #2, #3, #4

J. X. Zhu: "This is the most colorful show I've seen--vivid reds and greens were visible to the naked eye. The pictures were taken with a Nikon coolpix 995 camera, 8 second, ISO 800."

Oliver Ruesing, Dortmund/ Northrhine Westfalia, Germany
Oct. 31
#1, #2

O. Ruesing: "For the first time in my life I've seen auroras here in the central part of Europe."

more images: from Peter Duffy of Skipton, North Yorkshire, UK

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