Did you miss the aurora surprise of August 7th? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.
GEOSTORM ALERT: A moderate geomagnetic storm is in progress . If you live at high latitudes and it's dark, go outside and look for auroras now.
MORNING PLANETS: Waking up at dawn is hard to do. It helps when a bunch of planets holler "good morning." Venus, Mercury, Saturn and the crescent Moon are converging for a pretty sunrise display on August 20 through 22. It's a nice way to begin the day.
SUNSPOT 904: "The sun keeps giving us mortals gift after gift of beautiful photo-ops," says Jack Newton of Osoyoos, British Columbia. He took this picture yesterday:
Sunspot 904, the view through a Coronado 90mm filter.
The photo-ops are about to end. Sunspot 904 is approaching the western limb of the sun. By Monday, it'll be over the edge and out of sight. Catch it while you can.
more images: from Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Peter Hoebel of Erlangen, Germany; from Dennis Simmons of Brisbane, Qld, Australia; from Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland;
YELLOWKNIFE AURORAS: On August 18th while sky watchers were waiting for a CME to hit and spread auroras around the globe, Erik Bech was already enjoying a colorful display--no CME required:
He took this picture from Yellowknife, Canada, a place where auroras have a habit of appearing for no particular reason. A little gust of solar wind or a twitch of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is all it takes to produce bright Northern Lights. Yellowknife's secret? It's located near the Arctic Circle in the heart of aurora country.
In September and October, 2006, the rest of the world will become a bit more like Yellowknife. For reasons not fully understood, the early months of northern fall are prime time for aurora watching. Earth's magnetic field becomes especially prone to storming, producing Northern Lights in places where they are seldom seen. Aurora season is coming; stay tuned!
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
