"If you were out last Wednesday or thursday there was an aurora over the northern lights.

Dr. Charles Tolbert of the University of Virginia Department of Astronomy said, 'charged particles from the sun encountered the Earth's magnetic field and struck the Earth's atmosphere causing it to glow.' The latter was what local residents saw between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. last Wednesday and Thursday up in the sky.

To put it quite simply, that is why the sky was blood-red and looked so cool. Dr. Tolbert went on to say that it was very 'unusual for this to happen and be seen this far South.'

Last week a geomagnetic storm erupted on our sun. To be more specific a gigantic solar flare rupted from 'sunspot 10486' on the surface of the sun. That particular explosion blasted tremendous amounts of energy and matter toward the earth.

It recreate something scientists call a coronal mass ejection, or CME for short. According to solar astrophysicist John Kohl of the Harvard University Center for Astrophysics, 'This was the real thing. It headed straight for us like a freight train.' The flare last Thursday was the strongest in 30 years. It has been classified by scientists as an 'X17-category explosion.'

Eyewitness accounts of the blood-red sky said the event made them awestruck at the power of our sun.

The northeastern corner of our sky was shere the red color of the solar flare could be viewed with the naked eye.

Scientists now through the miracle of university observatory equipment can predict within a day or two when these flares are erupting on the sun. Thus giving residents of the planet a day or two notice when these events will light up the sky.

But such events can create problems for radio waves, and produce a lot of radiation. Airlines issued warnings that passengers could receive additional radiation exceeding the normal does one gets while flying.

The Federal Aviation Administration warned passengers on planes above 25,000 feet going north of the 35th parallel that they could receive approximately 2 days worth of radiation exposure. Meaning you would receive about 2 millirems per hour of radiation. The latter figure is about what one receives on terra firma about every other day.

Microwave communications were also expected to be potentially disrupted along with radio waves, etc." (Bruce J. Edmonds III, The Observer, November 5, 2003).

Editor's Note: All photos above are copyright 2003 by Robert Capon. The images were taken on the grounds of the McCormick Observatory, October 29th at 7:50 to 8:10 p.m. He says he was using a Pentax K-1000 35 mm camera, f 2.8, 28 mm wide angle lens, 800 ASA Fuji film, 15-30 second exposures.