- Southern Hemisphere Sky Events

Live in Southern Australia? Look out for an aurora Saturday night

Text from Spaceweather.com ‘X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th at 1653 UT. Because this sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.’

In Australian Eastern Standard Time, the flare will arrive at 8.20 pm AEST (+/- 7 hours). If you live in Southern Australia, away from city lights look to the South around that time. The further South you live, the better chance you have to see an aurora. Tasmania is perfect. That said, aurora have been seen repeatedly this year from Southern Victora.

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