Whopper of a solar storm hit last night, a G4: Severe

I can't remember where I read it, but I saw a post about potential for a G5 storm today.

Williwaw

I might have to start ignoring your posts. I'm already jealous just because you're in Alaska. Then you drop pictures of the northern lights and then the kicker, a sauna. The last good sauna I had was in Ekwok, AK, on the banks of the Nushagak River, twenty years ago. The locals got it roaring hot trying to mess with me and get me to be the first one out. They didn't know I'm part Finn and I stayed longer than all but one guy who I think was hallucinating by the time he finally stepped out. I've thought about buying a barrel sauna kit, but my wife and probably everyone else in North Carolina would think I'm nuts. 

@murphy Sorry but if you got to spend time on the Nushagak River and you fish, I'm the one who is jealous. Don't use the sauna a ton in the summer. but come winter, that's whole different story.

Shot 4 points with RTK today then used a gun between them all. The worst miss was 0.02'. That is unusual but in a good way.

View from southern Nevada last night.  This was not a sunset. Pic taken after sunset and facing north. I used RTK today and didn't see any issues.

@williwaw 

You called me on that one. After high school, most of my decisions were terrible, but one notable exception was working as a fishing guide throughout the Bristol Bay area. I was the only permanent resident of our fish camp on the Nushagak. If I had a group that wanted to overnight instead of flying back to the lodge, it was usually because they wanted to take advantage of the daylight and fish hard. Fifty kings between two fisherman wasn't uncommon. We backtrolled a modified silver and chartreuse-head K15 kwikfish with a precisely cut piece of sardine attached to the belly and tied in place with elastic thread. By carefully staying in the thalweg, the oily sardines created a scent line and fresh from the ocean kings couldn't help but bite. We'd reel up at the bottom of the channel, leap frog back to the top, and slowly backtroll again making use of a perforated kitty litter bucket thrown from the stern to keep the right pace, which we calibrated by watching how the kwikfish action moved the rod tips. Fifty-five pounds was about the biggest king I boated, most were in the twenty-five to thirty-five pound range. Flyfishing was far less productive, but egg patterns and egg-sucking leaches could scratch that itch. Good times. I'd love to float and fly fish my way down the Koktuli, into the Multchatna and down to the Stuyahok again. I just need my wife to be slightly less terrified of bear.

It was very visible here:

Then last night it was to also be seen, but SWMBO and I went out and not much of anything was visible when we looked. 

For some reason it came in a format that makes you have to click on it to see it. 

@murphy Never had a chance to fish Kings like that. It's been years since I've hooked up with one, numbers have been depressed for some time in my neck of the woods. Even Silvers have been hit and miss last few years. Nobody knows exactly why, maybe trawler bycatch, invasive pike, list goes on. Never had a chance to fish the Nushagak. People drop big money on the fishing lodges and guides up that way and I'm always to busy during the season scratching out the next job. So yea, I'm jealous. That's like the one of the holy grails of Alaska sport fishing. Need to find myself a rich widow that will support me in the lifestyle to which I wish to become accustomed. The saving grace is there's still plenty of great fishing around here that won't break the bank which compensates for the long winters made a little more bearable with sauna.