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FIRST
IMAGES OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE: The
lunar eclipse of June 15th has just finished. First
images are arrriving now: from
Australia, Switzerland;
New
Zealand, Australia,
Italy,
New
Zealand, South
Africa, Italy;
New
Zealand;
VOLCANIC
LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Wednesday night,
June 15th, there's going to be a total lunar eclipse
visible from every continent except North
America. The Moon will spend 100 minutes
fully engulfed in Earth's shadow, making this the
longest lunar eclipse in nearly 11 years. Maximum
coverage occurs on Wednesday night at 20:12 UT.
[details]
[animated
map] [webcasts: #1,
#2]
Exhaust from the erupting volcano in Chile could
alter the appearance of the eclipse. Scroll past
the shadowed Moon for further discussion:
Above: A
lunar eclipse on Dec. 21, 2010, photographed by
Alan Dyer of Gleichen, Alberta. [gallery]
Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University
of Colorado explains the volcano-eclipse connection:
"The Moon will pass deep into Earth's shadow
during totality, actually passing over the center
of the shadow at mid-eclipse. As such, it should
be a fairly dark eclipse. Furthermore, it appears
that last week's eruption of the volcano in Chile
may have placed some sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.
The ash and sulfur plume is extensive
and dense, with ash reported at least as high
as 13.7
km. Particles in the southern stratosphere could
cause a darkening of the southern part of the Moon
during totality."
In recent years, Keen has studied the brightness
of the Moon during eclipses to probe conditions
in the stratosphere. When the eclipsed Moon is bright,
the stratosphere is clear. On the other hand, a
dark eclipse indicates a dusty stratosphere. Clear
vs. dusty is important because the state of
the stratosphere affects climate; a clear stratosphere
lets the sunshine in to warm the Earth below. At
a 2008 SORCE conference Keen reported
that "the lunar eclipse record indicates a
clear stratosphere over the past decade, and that
this has contributed about 0.2 degrees to recent
warming."
Sky watchers in the eclipse zone are encouraged
to monitor
the darkness.
CORONAL
MASS EJECTION: On June 14th around
0810 UT, a magnetic filament near the sun's eastern
limb became unstable and erupted. The resulting
blast hurled a bright and massive CME into space:
The expanding cloud was observed by 3 spacecraft:
STEREO-A, STEREO-B and SOHO. Researchers at the
Goddard Space Flight Center's Space Weather Lab
assembled data from the fleet to create a 3-dimensional
model of the expanding cloud: movie.
According to their analysis, the cloud blew away
from the sun at a speed of 830 km/s and it could
deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field
on June 17th at 10:50 UT (plus
minus 7 hours). The impact is not expected to provoke
strong geomagnetic storming. Nevertheless, high-latitude
sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the
CME arrives. Aurora
alerts: text,
voice
June
2011 Aurora Gallery
[Aurora alerts: text,
voice]
[previous Junes: 2010,
2008, 2001]
Midnight
Solar Eclipse Gallery
[NASA: A
Rare Eclipse of the Midnight Sun]
