There was a huge proton flare last night from the sun, but it is unclear whether it is earth-directed or not. Quoting from Carey Oler, who operates the Aurora forum. <<We can confirm that a full halo coronal mass ejection was associated with this large and impressive X7 proton flare. But as Ulrich has said, it's very difficult to see through the snow. From what we can tell with an incomplete data set, it _looks_ like this CME may be fairly well directed Earthward. But I could be wrong. It's still early and I'd like the opinion of the SOHO science team on this one. But if it is fairly well Earthward-directed, the impact could be quite strong.>> If this turns out, we ~might~ be in a position to get some good aurora Friday night-ish. I thought I would post this "slightly premature" notice, so that those who are interested can have some advance warning. Jo