Some humongous sunspots are about to rotate to the "front" of the sun, and so we earthlings are about to get hit with some serious solar radiation over the next few days.

Meanwhile, here in Portland, the next few nights are forecast to be cloudless. Plus there's no moon this weekend.

All of which means there's a chance we could see the Northern Lights. It's rare to spot them from within the city limits at this latitude, but it's possible, and the conditions are apparently going to be good.

The Lights did show up here one night in the late '70s, and I managed to miss them. I've got my fingers crossed this time. It will never look as good as it does up in Alaska (see below), but I'm hoping for "just a little green."

Tomorrow night we'll even get an extra hour to look for it.