[OT] MAJOR auroral storm in progress!

Greetings, everyone,

Yes, I know, this has not much to do with FT/SG2/DS2, but I thought
I would share this with y'all on the off-chance that some of you
out there would be interested in seeing this.

Right now, as I type, there is a **major** auroral storm blazing in
the upper atmosphere over our planet. It apparently started at 3am
(Eastern Standard TIme, U.S.) this morning, and is *still* going on.
It is reaching as far south as the northern edge of Africa, and some
reports say in some areas people can see it *through* the clouds. IF
this storm continues unabated for another 6+ hours, most of you in the
U.S will have a chance to see it, starting about 40 or so minutes after
sunset (the sky will likely be too bright to see it prior to that). For
those of you in Europe - GO OUTSIDE NOW!! 

A good webpage to check this out is at:
http://www.spacew.com/www/aurora.html
Look at the 6th image down to get an idea of how big this storm is
cranking. 

Other, general information on the current storm (as well as line plots
of the magnetic field) are here:
http://www.spacew.com/
(to have the best chance for an aurora to occur, the "Bz" number has
to be high to the "South"; otherwise with the way Earth's magnetic
field interacts with the Sun's, high Bz number to the "North" usually
means almost no aurora will be visible)

Just a quick fyi. Keep your fingers cross this will keep powering
along until it is well past dark in your area. If you try to take
any photos, time exposures of 5-20 seconds should work fine for you.

Mk