It seems that is what happens, they flip.

You know that means almost everything with North in It would have to be South then, Like the Great White North would become the Great White South and the Southern US the Northern US, You'd think that is, Oh well. ;) How Ironic...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

They don't meet, but stay about 180 degrees apart.
The polar flip occurs when the magnetic poles get too close to the geographic equator for stability, this happens about every 200,000 to 300,000 years, but the last one was about 780,000 years ago, so the next one is overdue. The actual flip appears to happen very rapidly, at about 6deg per day - so that's 30 days for a complete reversal. Since the last flip was before man had invented writing, or even cave drawing, there are no human records to say what happened, but you can bet it was "quite spectacular", and very confusing for migratory species who use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Last night was the clearest night we have had in over a month; it was also the best night of viewing that I have had with both my eyes working in over ten years. Add to that the fact that I had been living in a city for the twenty years before that.
It all added up to one of the best observing nights of my later life. The Milky Way just burst out at me; the Big and Little Bear were looking down in all their glory. I could see the different shades of the stars almost like it was 3D.
Now add to that the fact that Sun is throwing off flares to beat the band. I am looking forward to the light show that the Aurora will have in store for us over the next three nights.
I'll see you there!

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Last night was the clearest night we have had in over a month; it was also the best night of viewing that I have had with both my eyes working in over ten years. Add to that the fact that I had been living in a city for the twenty years before that.
It all added up to one of the best observing nights of my later life. The Milky Way just burst out at me; the Big and Little Bear were looking down in all their glory. I could see the different shades of the stars almost like it was 3D.
Now add to that the fact that Sun is throwing off flares to beat the band. I am looking forward to the light show that the Aurora will have in store for us over the next three nights.
I'll see you there!

Celt, will you be taking any photos of this...?

All I have is a Canon A430 4.0 mega pixel snapper, without any way to hold the timer open. I have taken pix of noctilucent clouds, but they are just not top quality.
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Ian-Russell-naut_1309829738.jpg
Some day when I have extra money I will get a better camera to hook up to my telescope.

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All I have is a Canon A430 4.0 mega pixel snapper, without any way to hold the timer open. I have taken pix of noctilucent clouds, but they are just not top quality.
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Ian-Russell-naut_1309829738.jpg
Some day when I have extra money I will get a better camera to hook up to my telescope.

I keep promising myself a telescope (reflector)...it would be nice but living around London the skies at night are heavily polluted by street lighting etc. This has stopped me from getting one on the hoof so to speak. I did once many years ago convert a 500mm camera lens to take a Barlow lens so that it could be used as a telescope. It did work very well but the usable part of the lens was centered around the middle part of it only...as one would expect.

So far it's gonna be big!

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The Aurora is spanning the sky in green. It is a very good display.

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This is what the sky looked like here last night, Green in bands across the sky.
This pic was taken by Bob Johnson of Saskatoon Saskatchewan. The sky would have looked better there than here most of the night:

My Son is just now checking for me what camera might be good at the price I can afford.

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Get ready for a show thursday night for sure.
We have two huge CMEs on the way.

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Pretty pic Celt, I hope Yer son can find You a good camera.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I have to pay for the house repairs; there is little money for a new camera.
May be I can appeal to Long Sufferin' Marie?
Thank you for the thought.

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This is gonna be good, there are clouds in the sky, and we still have some blue in the north part of the sky, and the Aurora is so bright......

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Too murky here to see anything, but we were a bit marginal for anything really good.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

If you live in Australia you may be able to see the Aurora right now!
Things look good for Scandinavia.

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Or at least those in the Northern most part of Antarctica, better known as Tasmania will and maybe those near the southern coast of Australia near Tasmania will.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Wow! Time for the lead lined helmets.
This is the biggest I have seen this year! It's a KP 8 event.
"Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say that the CME impact may have strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field, directly exposing satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. Stay tuned for updates on this aspect of the storm."

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"Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say that the CME impact may have strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field, directly exposing satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. Stay tuned for updates on this aspect of the storm."
This is getting real big!

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We now have a strong geomagnetic storm going on, also aurora has been seen as low as Illinois and Oregon (typically 50° geomagnetic lat.).

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It is still light out and the lights in the sky have started already.
It could get all the way down to northern California.
Now I am amazed, the whole sky is covered in light.

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