Space Weather Unplugged - Eyesight vs. Camera Discussion + Current events 8/31/2024

Greetings and Welcome to Space Weather Unplugged for 8/31/2024! Today we are going to discuss the current Aurora activity that happened overnight, and then talk about our eyesight! This is a common question that comes up in the aurora chasing (and astrophotography circles) communities - and that's WHY CAN'T I SEE THE COLOR - THIS MUST BE FAKE!"
Well, this has to do with our biology, and that we have evolved to see during the day, and not at night. Cones, which are responsible for color "turn off" so to speak at night, when the rods take over. Also, your personal genetics, colorblindness, and age all play a role, too.
The key takeaway here is that the colors of Aurora are not being faked, nor is any DSO or Milky Way image. (at least form honest photographers - but that's awn entirely different topic) We just use the tools at our disposal - unbridled by biological limitations - to see what we cannot see.
Further reading:
Structure of Cone Photoreceptors: doi.org/10.101...
The molecular basis of variation in human color vision: onlinelibrary....
Chapter 12 - Visual psychophysics: Luminance and color
www.sciencedir...
Thresholds and noise limitations of colour vision in dim light
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Tetrachromats:
www.sciencedir...
#eyesight #biology #astrophotography #spaceweather #spacewx #auroraborealis #science #scienceandtechnology

[@lesladbrook4508]

Absolutely interesting discussion today, highly educational. Great job guys, thank you. 🙂

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

Our pleasure! :). ❤️

[@josephmello4517]

Do the comments and questions from the livestream get cleared out? I was hoping to review them.

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

It shouldn't be cleared.... I always have issues seeing it afterward on the phone. But if I watch it from desktop, that chat should pop up. It does populate as the video plays.

[@josephmello4517]

@@Shelbydiamondstar thank you, will try it on my laptop.excellent work and episode

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

@@josephmello4517 :) glad you enjoy them!! see you on the next one!

[@josephmello4517]

@@Shelbydiamondstar Now on my laptop, I can see them. Thanks for the tip

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

Anytime! Guess it's just a differece between the mobile and regular version of KZbin. ​@@josephmello4517

[@storm079]

Is our magnetic field weakening? This is getting quite ridiculous! I note they have told us our core has slowed and even reversed, this is the magneto generating magnetic field and is mainstream discussion now without alarming anybody obv. We are also getting a tonne of quakes and volcanoes going off, very hard not to notice now. Also I it possible this sort of energy we are seeing, could come from a red/brown dwarf? Thanks for any discussion u might have

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

Every so often, Earth does "flip" its magnetic field. It's on a much, much slower scale and it doesn't happen abruptly, either. Can take hundreds of years. There's a number of papers out there on this subject. And it is a common question -mainly because there's a lot of doomsday things out there. However, the good thing is - research has been done by mathematicians and scientists in this area, and even at its weakest, it is still enough to protect us from the worst CMES. What this means for animals like birds who use this to migrate or our navigation systems? now that'll be the big problem! Keep this in mind, as well - we currently live in a HYPER connected world. So things that happen regularly "seem" to be more simply because we know about it instantly! We are monitoring things at a rate that was unheard of - or impossible - even 50 years ago. As far as the sun goes - it still has a few billion years left before it starts to die. :) I think this is a topic that is worth discussion, and we will do this. We will dig up the papers that have been done on this - as per usual! :)

[@erichlinser3994]

I looked out the balcony at 2200, decided against it, phone showed some activity, the morning of the 28th was pretty good, I was out all night.

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

Nice! It can be easy to just stay out all night. Haha. !

[@josephmello4517]

Which course or program did you both complete to learn about the aurora in depth?

[@Shelbydiamondstar]

I am currently in the SWEN program offered from Millersville University. But mostly self taught up to this point. Christian has a background in Astrophysics... he's a *bit* smarter than I am. LOL...

[@josephmello4517]

@@Shelbydiamondstar lol. You show a lot of acumen, plus the smarts from photography.

[@christianharris5945]

As she mentioned I have Astrophysics degree, but I've also been in the space weather field just a little over 12 years now, some of that overlapping while I was attending university so I had a good deal of resources to work with to learn from.

[@josephmello4517]

@@christianharris5945 i am learning this in layers and might be ready for a deeper dive. I appreciate any resources for study. You both do a great job!