Low-latitude auroras are extremely rare. In this work, we study the low-latitude aurora observed on November 14 and 15, 1789. Before this one, several auroras had been studied in the world but no one of low-latitude. As far as we know, this was the first to be studied observationally, physically and mathematically: two explanations were proposed, aurora’s height and overhead were measured, one aurora treatise were published, its observation was predicted in other regions, and, for the first time, an aurora was reproduced in a laboratory. These analyses were carried out by three Mexican scientists, Antonio de León y Gama, José Antonio Alzate and Francisco Dimas Rangel. We used these Eighteenth century works to estimate some parameters of the 1789 aurora. We calculated the height and we confirmed that León y Gama’s value was determined correctly for low latitude auroras, in the range between 460 and 680 km. We also determined the position of the auroral oval, and we found it was almost circular with a radius of approximately 4786 km; probably this aurora manifested along the entire length of the auroral oval, or at least in the arc of the circle between America and Europe. We estimated the geomagnetic latitude of the auroral oval (overhead points) at 47°N (43° from the geomagnetic north pole). We determined, as well, the geomagnetic latitude of the southernmost places where it was seen at ~34° (56° from the geomagnetic north pole). Our result on the relationship between sub-zenith point (overhead) and southernmost point is 30°/17° (geographic latitude), the lowest reported at that time.

低纬度极光极为罕见。在这项工作中，我们研究了 1789 年 11 月 14 日至 15 日观测到的低纬度极光。在此之前，世界上已经研究过几次极光，但没有一个是低纬度的。据我们所知，这是第一个在观测、物理和数学上进行研究的：提出了两种解释，测量了极光的高度和头顶，发表了一篇极光论文，在其他地区预测了它的观测结果，并且，对于第一个当时，在实验室中再现了极光。这些分析是由三位墨西哥科学家 Antonio de León y Gama、José Antonio Alzate 和 Francisco Dimas Rangel 进行的。我们使用这些十八世纪的作品来估计 1789 年极光的一些参数。我们计算了高度，并确认 León y Gama 的值对于低纬度极光是正确确定的，范围在 460 到 680 公里之间。我们还确定了极光椭圆的位置，我们发现它几乎是圆形的，半径约为4786公里；可能这个极光沿着极光椭圆的整个长度出现，或者至少在美洲和欧洲之间的圆弧中出现。我们估计了 47°N（距地磁北极 43°）的极光椭圆（头顶点）的地磁纬度。我们还确定了在大约 34°（距地磁北极 56°）处看到它的最南端的地磁纬度。我们对次天顶点（头顶）和最南点之间的关系的结果是 30°/17°（地理纬度），这是当时报告的最低点。