B.C. sky gazers treated to rare 'double header' of northern lights and meteor shower
It’s been an exciting few days for sky gazers, with the Perseid meteor shower and the northern lights visible in some parts of the province.
Some of the pictures of the northern lights from Vancouver Island over the weekend are breathtaking.
And a shot from the North Shuswap managed to capture a part of the Perseid meteor shower and the northern lights all in one go.
“Any auroral event in Vancouver is extremely rare,” said sky gazer and former physics teacher Peter Vogel. “Any auroral event close to the 49th (parallel) here is relatively rare. To have a double header is the rarest of the rare, shall we say.”
Unfortunately, many parts of Metro Vancouver had cloud that disrupted getting much of a clear view.
But a photo out of White Rock shows there were areas locally that got a great look.
“It’s basically like a big burp coming from the sun, where you have magnetic field lines that are breaking and they’re spewing out charged particles into space,” said Rosanna Tilbrook with the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. “Now when they interact with Earth’s atmosphere, its magnetosphere and then its atmosphere, that causes all these pretty lights in the sky.”
“It’s basically the charged particles doing a dance up in the sky.”
The show over the last few days brought up memories of that great display of aurora borealis we got in May – which was visible in Vancouver.
“It hit G4 level this morning, which is a notch down from what we had in May which was really the once-in-a-lifetime event for Vancouverites,” Vogel said. “So yeah, if you were on a ferry last night, people got to see it, just across the border, and I believe it went down as far south as maybe Colorado for naked eye visibility.”
And over the next couple of nights, there’s a chance you might be able to catch some of the meteor shower, but you might have to venture out a bit.
“So if you can get further away from the city or maybe somewhere it isn’t going to be cloudy, that would be ideal,” Tilbrook said. “But unfortunately if it is cloudy that’s going to pose a bit of a problem.”
And if you are trying to catch part of the meteor shower, experts say you should get to your viewing spot half an hour before to let your eyes adjust.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Conservatives to put forward non-confidence motion in Trudeau government 'at earliest possible opportunity'
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party will put forward a non-confidence motion when Parliament resumes 'at the earliest possible opportunity' with the aim of triggering an early federal election.
FACT CHECK: A look at the false and misleading claims made during the Trump-Harris debate
In their first and perhaps only debate, former U.S. president Donald Trump and U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris described the state of the country in starkly different terms. As the two traded jabs, some old false and misleading claims emerged along with some new ones.
BREAKING An iconic Winston Churchill photograph, once stolen and replaced with a fake in Ottawa, has been found
Ottawa's Chateau Laurier hotel says authorities have recovered an iconic photograph of Winston Churchill after it was stolen and replaced with a fake nearly three years ago.
Liberals put up united front after fractious summer at Nanaimo retreat
Liberal MPs will have one last chance to tell their leader how they think their party can improve their political prospects before they return to Ottawa to face off against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons.
The 18% tip: Here's what Canadians are saying as some restaurants raise their default options
Despite what the default options on the payment terminal might read, most Canadians still want to tip around 15 per cent, according to a new survey.
Parents fight for change after 13-year-old girl dies in B.C. homeless camp
Brianna McDonald's death was caused by a suspected overdose, according to her family. And her grieving parents are urging change so other families don’t have to face what they are going though.
Mother of suspected Apalachee High School shooter apologizes to victims' families in open letter
The mother of the teenager suspected of killing four people during last week’s shooting at a Georgia high school has apologized to the victims' families in an open letter while insisting her son 'is not a monster.'
French authorities foiled 3 plots targeting the Paris Olympics, counterterrorism prosecutor says
French authorities foiled three plots to attack the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and other cities that hosted the summer events, the national counterterrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Canada working on military AI, Blair says, as he endorses international agreement
Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada is working on incorporating artificial intelligence in its military, but the technology won't replace humans.