Physics B‑class High‑importance

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Hello. I can't open the ogg file (Aurora Borealis from ISS) with Audacity neither Amadeus II. The applications don't recognize it as an ogg vorbis file. i don't know how to help, so i just leave this note ! elifsu

It's not Ogg Vorbis audio, it's Ogg Theora video. Please see Wikipedia:Media help. —Keenan Pepper 19:14, 30 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This article is slanting towards too technical... it needs historical and cultural background. Some bits about noteworthy displays in modern times would be worthwhile, too. -76.4.49.201 22:12, 6 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The article states that no one has recorded the sounds of the aurora, but what about stephen p. mcgreevy? http://www.auroralchorus.com, have these recordings been disproved?
These sound recordings are VLF waves, i.e. these are radio waves that are translated into sound by a radio reciever. They come from the magnetosphere, and some of these waves are associated with aurora, but they are not the sound of the aurora. (Lummerzheim 19:03, 20 December 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Too many external links have sprouted. We particularly don't need links to every pretty picture. You're invited to check a link or two and improve the "External links" section. (SEWilco 05:32, 3 November 2006 (UTC))[reply]

It's not great and had I gotten there with the camera 20 minutes before, it was lighting up the whole sky, bottom to top and was just incredible. Still was quite a sight. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Btrotter (talk • contribs) 07:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Why is there no section or link for any currently visible auroras? Or are specific auroras non-notable? AstroHurricane001 22:25, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Auroras only last for a short while, so there would be no point of logging currently visible auroras. By the time the aurora would be logged it would have already have disappeared. Uwilldrop 18:43, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I added a link to the aurora forecast from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska (Lummerzheim 19:02, 20 December 2006 (UTC))[reply]

There are auroras in north here in every few days and they last for minutes. Logging them all would be ridiculous.

In Sir John Franklin’s Journey to the Polar Sea, his entry in Chapter VIII - 1819, “January 3rd, he relates a story:

‘He was traveling in a canoe in the English River, and had landed near the Kettle River, when the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis were so vivid and low that the Canadians fell on their faces, and began praying and crying, fearing they should be killed: he himself threw away his gun and knife, that they might not attract the flashes, for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness, and moving parallel to its surface. They continued for upward of five minutes, as near as he could judge, and made a loud rustling noise, like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. After they had ceased, the sky became clear, with little wind.’

“…within two feet of the earth.” Is this possible? If not the Aurora, what could it have been?

A first hand account of the Aurora Australis touching the surface of the earth is given in Sir Ernest Shackleton's The Heart of the Antartic Chapter 15.

"About the same time we began to see the aurora, and night after night, except when the moon was at its full or the sky overcast, the waving mystic lines of light were thrown across the heavens, waxing and waning rapidly, falling into folds and curtains, spreading out into great arches and sometimes shooting vertical beams almost to the zenith. Sometimes, indeed often, the aurora hovered over Mount Erebus, attracted no doubt by this great isolated mass of rock, sometimes descending to the lower slopes and always giving us an interest that never failed"

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.65.42.172 (talk) 19:36, 25 February 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Really?Puddytang 07:48, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

has nothing to do with aurorae, instead talks about stupid midnight sun.. why? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.178.69.39 (talk) 05:46, 2 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I agree. It looks like someone added a high school science report to the beginning of the article. I'm going to remove it. --Boreas231 16:24, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, what's with the football relations on the Inuit beliefs? I'm not sure on what to change it to, but it should be changed.

In Inuit folklore, northern lights were the spirits of the dead playing football with human skulls over the sky. The Inuit also used the aurora to get their children home after dark by claiming that if you whistled in their presence they would come down and split their heads from their body to play football with it. Another version of this (Inuit)folklore is that the northern lights are the dead, and when someone dies they don't feel pain anymore. They tell stories of the dead playing soccer with a frozen walrus head. To get your ancestors too come closer you whistle, if they come too close click your nails

wtf? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 158.143.214.46 (talk) 19:30, 11 May 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Was first mentioned by Ancient Greek explorer - geographer Pytheas.

For some reason, this was the first "sentence" of the article. I moved it to a more appropriate place, but I'm not sure if it's in the best place, or if the current article even has a place for it.

Anyways, I just thought I'd explain my actions here, as I usually do to prevent unnecessary reverts. -- trlkly 07:13, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I still think the lead paragraph needs a little definition of the fenomena, "What is an aurora Borealis?" in a few words. --Andersmusician VOTE 03:33, 1 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Event did happen according [Google Book's scan of the 1860 quote] it definitely wasn't OREGON's "Portland", because the First Transcontinental Telegraph didn't exist til 1861. Thus there could not be possibly a telegraph line between Boston, MA and Portland, OR. Since Portland, Maine was the obvious largest Portland of the time connected by telegraph to Boston, references to Portland of this day was obviously Portland, ME, not Portland, OR so I have edited this to reference to the prevailing Portland of the day. However, there are about 10 Portland's in USA. If someone can confirm which Portland was referenced, please do so. Mdrejhon 23:45, 11 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]