WHY I BUILT AURORA OUTPOST
I missed the Gannon Storm in May 2024. A friend across town posted a photo with aurora directly overhead and I couldn’t believe it — I had no idea the northern lights could be seen from this latitude. The next few nights I went out and caught faint horizon glimpses on camera, and that was enough to be hooked.
I got obsessed. Joined every chase group, every alert channel, and downloaded a pile of apps that all just gave the same less-than-useful Kp-only alerts. I wanted to know when to really head out. So I started reading the actual scientific literature, followed the people doing the real research, and built up a much more meaningful understanding of the complex interplay that leads to the lights.
Many nights I’d find myself bouncing between space weather apps, weather apps, Google Maps, light pollution maps, and various NOAA and NASA websites. Between location, forecasts, confusing local time vs UTC, and desperately trying to find a clear dark spot in the precious little time I had in the evening — it could be maddening. I wanted everything in one place, with more layered, aurora-hunting-specific answers.
So I started building it. Aurora Outpost pulls space weather, clouds, light pollution, aurora forecasts, and live ground-truth sightings from other chasers into one app — laid out the way someone actually decides whether to head out and where to go. It also gives chasers a place to save and share locations, so a newcomer doesn’t have to start from zero. Along the way I built some of my own tools too, including a substorm timing model trained on over 7,000 events going back more than a decade — it gives you a ballpark of when to go instead of guessing all night.
Photography has been a serious hobby of mine for over 15 years. Astrophotography came along in the last few, and aurora chasing took over from there. No professional experience in space weather — but I’ve got a science background and a deep appreciation for the field. I’m a chaser first. Aurora Outpost is the passion project that came out of all of it.
