To some experts solar eruptions threaten our modern way of lifeStanding beneath the skies of Nottinghamshire, one Times letter writer said that it was as if night had turned to day. In Preston, another correspondent spoke of “luminous waves” that “rolled up in quick succession” — bright enough to cast an eerie and flickering shadow. Twelve hours later, on the other side of the world, an Australian miner was yet more poetic about what, for him, were the Southern Lights. “A scene of almost unspeakable beauty presented itself,” he said, recalling that night in September 1859. “Lights of every imaginable colour were issuing from the southern heavens, one colour fading away only to give place to another if possible more beautiful than the last.”Satellite Earth Station Carnarvon in Australia where, in 1859, a miner reported the greatest aurora ALAMYIt was, he said — and he was almost certainly right

Source: The Times August 28, 2020 16:07 UTC