AURORA on 13.03.1989, 11 PM CET (in Heidelberg)
25 years ago I saw my first aurora. However, on the evening of 13.3.1989 during the observation, I didn't yet know it was an aurora! As often, chance had to play a part. That was the Tagesschau on the following evening, where the aurora was mentioned as an introduction to the weather forecast: "Last night around 11 PM northern lights were visible to the north". This recalled the sighting from the previous evening, and I noted the following in my astro-diary on the evening of 14.3.:
I noticed a bright glow above the cloud bank in the N-NE, which I couldn't attribute to the moon, but it didn't concern me further. I would have rather associated it with "high fog patches". Another thing occurred to me: I saw two "contrails" - at least, I thought they were, even though I couldn't quite explain them. They were very faint and really too "homogeneous"; the eastern one was also too wide - it might have been about 10°. A little further west of it - and parallel to it - there was another, but much narrower - more like a contrail.
The phenomenon wouldn't have caught my attention if I hadn't moments later discovered in amazement that they had shifted significantly to the east (maybe 20–30°). But by then it was so faint that they were no longer visible. They disappeared in the "bright glow" above the cloud cover...
These two streaks initially came quite directly "from" the house in the north and extended to near the zenith.
If I hadn't heard about the aurora during the weather forecast, I wouldn't have recalled the above and would have completely forgotten it - I would never have associated the "glow" with an aurora - would never have expected it - especially with this almost "cloud-laden" sky. The clouds were in fact retreating, the night probably became clear. Early this morning it was still the clearest sky. It quickly clouded over in the early morning.<
From the diary it follows that I observed variable stars at 00:15 AM (CET) that night (with only a few clouds). At that time, Jupiter and Mars were also in conjunction near the Pleiades, and I tried to photograph this constellation: on 13.3. at 9:45 PM >attempt, with clouds!<, and then again later: >around 11 PM? again, w[ithout] clouds.
Based on this data, the observation of the aurora can be narrowed to the period between about 10 and 11 PM, which corresponds well with the TV announcement. The (retreating) clouds in the north probably covered part of the aurora. It must have been very impressive - with the two beams reaching the zenith! It was evidently a strong but very short storm (substorm?) with rapid movements or its maximum. During the variable star observation about 1 hour later, I noticed nothing more.
In hindsight, the perception history of this phenomenon is very interesting for me. Although I had several years of sky observation behind me - especially brightness estimates of variable stars - I had no idea about auroras and their visibility. This only came about in April 2000 when I saw the aurora but couldn't initially identify it, and over the course of the evening concluded it was an aurora through a process of elimination. I had compared the unusual "beams" to "contrails" and that was the end of it, even though these contrails were literally "peculiar" (at least for 24 hours) and their strange behavior didn't concern me further - I probably wouldn't have known what to focus on! Only the concrete reference to the aurora on the following evening brought the "peculiarity" back to mind - and the diary entry. Today I know that they were so-called beams - thanks to the notes I made back then.
How many unusual things do we see, but can't classify, comparing them to something known - and thus the observation is filed away in a "drawer" and disappears never to be seen again...