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(meteorobs) OT - Colour perception.... auroras/meteors et al....

Maria et al -

> I am currently a spaceweather subscriber. I am in what I consider to be a
> moderate or a little worse light-polluted area, am looking NE, N, and NW,
> and the closest thing I've seen that could have been aurora were some
   light
> colored clouds. I haven't seen any of the vivid colors everyone else is
> seeing. Please let me know what I'm not doing or am doing wrong.

In order to see coloured aurora, you have to have some.  Not all aurora have
colours.  Most, in my decades of observing experience from southern Ontario,
have been pale whitish-green.  This is from decent country skies, but not
mountaintops in Alberta or Alaska, or remote sites with mag 7 skies.

Then, if an aurora has colour, your eyes have to notice it.  Not all eyes
are the same at perceiving colour.  For myself, I see most aurora as pale
whitish-green.  If I see colour, man, it has to be <vivid> or my eyes just
won't pick up on it.  I saw one of the first of a batch of bright red aurora
in the late 1980's when I was living just north of Toronto, Canada's largest
city.  The whole sky was doing its thing, in vivid whitish-green, and then
it was as if somebody flipped a switch and the whole sky turned bright blood
red.  It was almost rather scary, and really sent chills down your spine.
Since then, we've had a number of red aurora over the years, although
nothing like that very first one I saw.

To see red, get to know what your sky looks like normally.  Often, red
aurora is <almost> below your colour perception level in the dark.
Sometimes you'll take a look and think the aurora looks a bit strange, sort
of dark.  Try averted vision, and you may detect a hint of red.  If it's
really bright, no problem.  If it's faint red, it's usually hard to see with
the eye - and is often much better picked up by a camera and tripod
photograph.

Colour perception varies from person to person for meteors too.  I see 99%
of my meteors as white.  Other observers report all kinds of colours.  For
me to see a meteor as red, it has to be <vivid> red.  Same with blue or
green or yellow.  If it's not extremely vivid, my eyes see it as white.
Even as a kid, same thing.  I just don't see pale colours at night in the
dark.

Anyway... just a couple comments.  Keep looking up, that's the main thing!

- Cathy Hall
  Ontario, Canada





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