>Nice idea. My brother saw them last year in Iceland. He has more disposable income than me so he gets to do that sort of thing :-)
>
> I think I'll have to wait for a Carrington event.

We've seen them a couple of times here in Kansas (weak show since we are so far south).

I've seen them many times in New Hampshire and Maine when I was growing up. Very cool.

To see them from Alaska - WAY cool.

>
>>>Complete cloud cover here. Thats one thing you get used to in the UK. Most astronomical events are on the other side of a thick cloud layer.
>>
>>It's like that here for most of the winter ... we get temperature inversions and the whole valley is socked in for weeks at a time ... literally no sunshine at all for many weeks. It can get depressing! But then the rest of the year is nice and sunny (although also very, very windy)!
>>
>>A few years ago (towards the end of the last solar max, I think it was) when there were lots of auroras, we wanted to see the aurora so bad. But, every time they were visibile from here, we had fog or clouds! It was so frustrating! Finally, we decided to do something about it. On the spur of the moment, we used frequent flier miles and web specials to fly (practically free) to Fairbanks Alaska for a couple of days. It paid off ... we saw the aurora! It was spectacular!
>>
>>~~Bonnie
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>As it turned out, the forcast was wrong! The skies cleared up a bit, not entirely, but enough blue sky holes to get some decent viewing. We made a viewer out of a box and binoculars. It was a pretty cool thing to see!!
>>>>
>>>>~~Bonnie
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>Unfortunately, the entire Pacific Northwest is forecast to be cloudy ... we won't even be able to drive to a non-cloudy area for the viewing. Unless the forecase it wrong, I guess I'll just have to watch a webcast. Darn!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>~~Bonnie
>>>>>
>>>>>Drive to Kansas. We're forecast for clear.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Transit of Venus in front of the Sun, last time this century. As with a solar eclipse, looking directly at the Sun is dangerous - I am not sure whether there would be much to see, anyway, but specially designed, extremely dark glasses might be used. I am not sure whether welder's glasses are dark enough. And looking through a telescope or binoculars is VERY dangerous - the concentrated light is enough to start a fire. However, if you do have a telescope, an image can be projected on a piece of paper.