X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f7789,77b991ff5aa7803e,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf7789,public X-Google-Thread: f996b,77b991ff5aa7803e,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-Thread: fbb9d,77b991ff5aa7803e,start X-Google-Attributes: gidfbb9d,public X-Google-Thread: 10adee,77b991ff5aa7803e,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10adee,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-01-06 06:45:24 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!dearn!blekul11!idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be!ub4b!EU.net!Germany.EU.net! howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!sashimi.wwa.com!not-for-mail From: jittlov@erehwon.caltech.edu (Mike Jittlov) Newsgroups: alt.fan.mike-jittlov,alt.ascii-art,soc.culture.nordic,rec.arts.ascii Subject: Talk-Line Northern Lights ASCII (180 lines) Date: 5 Jan 1995 17:34:26 -0600 Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 180 Sender: boba@gagme.wwa.com Approved: boba@wwa.com Message-ID: <3ehvm2$sp6@gagme.wwa.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gagme.wwa.com Keywords: Rice, ascii, Jittlov Xref: nntp.gmd.de alt.fan.mike-jittlov:6156 alt.ascii-art:18776 soc.culture.nordic:37136 rec.arts.ascii:3512 Crosspost/imported from: rec.arts.ascii (moderated) #3503 (6 + 19 more) From: rice@rs4.tcs.tulane.edu (Dave Rice) [1] Line: Aurora borealis/Northern Lights Date: Fri Dec 30 20:21:39 PST 1994 Organization: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA There was a request for an ascii art northern lights posted here some time ago. Here is an attempt: _____________________________________________________________________________ ` : | | | |: || : ` : | |+|: | : : :| . ` . ` : | :| || |: : ` | | :| : | : |: | . : .' ': || |: | ' ` || | : | |: : | . ` . :. `' || | ' | * ` : | | :| |*| : : :| * * ` | : : | . ` ' :| | :| . : : * :.|| .` | | | : .:| ` | || | : |: | | || ' . + ` | : .: . '| | : :| : . |:| || . . ` *| || : ` | | :| | : |:| | . . . || |.: * | || : : :||| . . . * . . ` |||. + + '| ||| . ||` . * . +:`|! . |||| :.||` + . ..!|* . | :`||+ |||` . + : |||` .| :| | | |.| ||` . * + ' + :|| |` :.+. || || | |:`|| ` . .||` . ..|| | |: '` `| | |` + . +++ || !|!: ` :| | + . . | . `|||.: .|| . . ` ' `|. . `:||| + ||' ` __ + * `' `'|. `: "' `---"""----....____,..^---`^``----.,.___ `. `. . ____,.,- ___,--'""`---"' ^ ^ ^ ^ """'---,..___ __,..---""' --"' ^ ``--..,__ _____________________________________________________________________________ Winter night's northern lights by: D. Rice 12/94 _____________________________________________________________________________ A few comments on aurora and on the figure: Aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, aurora australis, are phenomena that occur only in the high latitudes, about 65 degrees North or South. The earth's atmosphere glows due to the impingement of energetic particles that are trapped by the earth's magnetic field. These particles circle the lines of force until they hit the atmosphere where the field dips into the earth. When they hit the atmosphere, they cause the air to glow. The glow is not terribly bright, in general. Thus the glow is seen usually under conditions of low ambient light from other sources. This means that the sightings are mostly in winter, because it is light all the time in the summer at high latitudes. Also, clouds, fog, or smoke will obscure aurora. The moon can overpower aurora in its region of the sky. Because the atmosphere itself is doing the glowing, the aurora is transparent--stars, planets, earth satellites, and other luminous bodies can be seen through it. Most auroras are diffuse greenish-white clouds. These are not so interesting because they resemble clouds lit by moonlight. When the sun, the main source of particles, is particularly energetic, the entire sky may be lit with aurora. A spectacular show happened in 1959, where aurora was seen as far south as Mexico City. When they are this extensive, they are generally red. The most interesting auroras fall between these two extremes. They appear to be "curtains," bands or streamers that thread their way through the night sky. These curtains appear to have nearly vertical "folds" and the streamers extend horizontally great distances -- like some of Cristo's artwork. There may be one or many streamers. If more that one, the streamers follow nearly parallel tracks, locally speaking. The color can vary from bluish to green to red within a "fold," with red on the bottom or hem of the curtain. The hem is usually more distinct than the top of the curtain, which can be quite diffuse. I based this work -- with huge artistic license -- on a photo by Vic Hessler of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The Geophysical Institute has also put out a video on auroral phenomena; music was composed to accompany it. It is commonly said that auroras can be heard, by my ears never did, despite 16+ years of trying. The ASCII figure doesn't do justice to the phenomenon. I tried to represent the detailed nature of the "folds" by using only vertical ascii characters and centered dots. At a distance the ascii-aurora looks like "smoke." I don't know what to do about it, except to view it as light against a dark background, as on a computer screen. There are numerous other things one could do in ascii. I put this art on one computer screen of text, but it could be extended from the horizon ahead overhead to the horizon behind. These things really do cover a sizeable part of the sky. Also, animation could show the movement and intensity variations of the streamers as a function of time. The starry background could move with the rotation of the earth, and maybe even twinkle a bit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------->8 Mike Jittlov adds: September 20, 1993 - I was visiting Iceland, and extremely fortunate to be in the company of vikingologist The Legendary Skia and her friend Sarah. We were touring the western edge of the island, by Snaefellsnes Volcano -- the real-life site of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth", and what UFO-believers call Earth's "Positive Psychic Pole" (the other pole somewhere in Tibet). A UFO convention was even scheduled there, the next week. I wonder if they saw anything as sensational as what we would soon witness. It began as a faint cloud streak, which seemed a little too bright for the twilight -- I thought it might be an irridescent jet trail, like those occasionally seen over Los Angeles. But it stayed long after the night fell, and soon we could see the rippled hanging -curtain effect of a postcard-perfect aurora. >Also, animation could show the movement and intensity variations of The aurora barely moved, at first... 15 minutes later, it was visibly shifting. In 15 more minutes, it was a giant, undulating sky-snake, with a partner joining it. A few dark clouds drifted below, giving a sense of immense scope -- the world-serpents were awesome, easily the fuel of legends. 15 minutes later, a third aurora joined, with all three now writhing wildly -- at full speed, no time-lapse animation was needed to see their motion. Both Skia and Sarah could see _lots_ of different colors, ooo-ing and aaah-ing at the reds (a sign of war or dramatic change). All I saw were pale greens and blues - either a deficiency of my male eyes, or too many hours staring through my Sony Handicam's monochrome monitor. I was also feeling strangely tired - that inbetween stage before sleep comes (there was no reason, Skia had been doing all the car-driving). Suddenly at 9:45pm, from a point-source above us, laser-like streams came shooting down, in a full 360-degree display. And a few minutes later, swirling patterns began appearing and vanishing above, as if the gods were pressing their fingerprints on the Great Dome of Night. I could finally see more colors in those - red and purple. I forced myself awake and aware, looked through the Handicam, but disappointed that nothing was visible in the viewfinder. I tapped the record button anyway, just to get my friends' wonderful exclamations. That was a very fortunate move. When I returned to LA and played the tapes back on a color TV, the visual spectacle was actually recorded. It's faint, but you can see the full-speed organic riots of color, and hear our constant "oh-ghod-WOWW!!" reactions. Here's my view, using (& over-complicating) Dave Rice's Aurora-ascii: _____________________________________________________________________________ ` |:| |:: |: .|: /:.\\ `.::|.|./|+|: | :|: :| : . . / `/,_\` \ . .: ` ::| :| :||/ |:_ : `.:|/:|::|\:`|:: |: . |: . ( ,'// \ \ ` * :| . .' ': .|| '|:_\|::. / ' `||| | ::| |: : |:.| / /((`\\ ` `. :.| . ''//|| \|:|:/:.' / . \ :\|:| :| |*| : :(:(.``))`) \ , :|| * * ( //(,;))|)|| :/:: . . ` ` '\:| | :| . . : \_// / ' ) :.||: .` ((_//'/ /|:| | :|/::...\ ` ' | || | : |: ',' / / | |:: . \` \_/,' '' '/: ||'|:| |: \ * \ '| | : :|\:. ," ' : | ||| . . `.__ /_/ . .: ||: :|\:. ` \ | | :|.||. _/ |:| |:| . ./ ' / . ' ''| ||`|:. .\ .\ | || ::!. +:| | |`: e + / . / . ': |||. + \+ '| ||| . :|| |.` @@e / . ' ' . . +'||! \ . ..`. `||: :.||;` . @@@e. .a@e ' / . / : .::!: ` . .: |`|:' . |||` a@a@@@@a. , ' | ..:.|` \.:: :| | '\ .|.||` . .=a@@@@@@@@@@e@e / a@e / + ..:|` \ .+ ||| || ' .:`|| ` . '.=@@@@@@e. / a@@@@@e' .:|.` ` ..:|| ||; ' |:| |`` . / .=a@@@@@@@@e. .a@&. \!|!''' :| | \ . / / . '.=a@@@@@@@e. ``|::.. \ :||; . ` / ' / `|`|;. \ `:||: + !|' \ __ + / ' : ':. ` `'|. \ `: \ "' `---"""----....____,..^---`^``----.,.__`` \ `. \ `. ____,.,- ___,--'""`---"' ^ ^ ^ ^ _""""'---,..___ `_,..---""' --"' ^ ii d#b ``--..,__ _____________________________________________________________________________ I understand there's a Northern Lights festival in Tromsoe, Norway, in just two weeks... ...And right after that, the Tromsoe Film Festival, for little-seen creatively eccentric movies... o================================o:; ,::::,*.:::::.*.:::::::::::: | Mike Jittlov - Wizard, etc |';* ';;'..`::::' `:*`:;:::::: | jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu |;.;+, '* ```:'o o `, `::;:: | & alt.fan.mike-jittlov |,',.::.. .' .' |\^/|:. `*:.. `* | (but lately backpacking around |...May All Your \Y/ Good Dreams | Scandinavia & Middle Earth...) |and Fine Wishes /_\ Come True:) o================================o===============_/ \_===========