SEVEN SISTERS AND THE SUN: You can't see it, but the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can. A conjunction is underway between the Pleiades and the sun. Using its coronagraph to block the sun's glare, SOHO is monitoring the heavenly encounter. Click here for a ringside seat. JUST HANGIN' AROUND: Regard the pair of photos below. Now cross your eyes and you will see what it is like to work on the Hubble Space Telescope: Click to view a larger image and alternate left-right pairs The stereo pair, prepared by graphic artist Patrick Vantuyne of Belgium, shows spacewalker Andrew Feustal "just hangin' around" shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay on May 18th. Feustal had paused for fellow spacewalker John Grunsfeld to take his picture during a grueling 7 hour 2 minute spacewalk that put the finishing touches on NASA's masterpiece STS-125 Hubble repair mission. Thanks to their efforts, Hubble is back in orbit and working again, better than ever. Meanwhile, the crew of Atlantis is scheduled to land in Florida on Friday, May 22nd, at 10:00 am EDT, although bad weather threatens to delay their return. Stay tuned for updates. GREEN FLASH: Green flashes from the sun are brief and elusive. You can miss one simply by blinking. So imagine the surprise of Lance B. of the Cayman islands on May 17th when he watched a flash endure for two ... long ... seconds. "I had enough time to take this picture," he says: The green spot on the horizon is the flash showing itself during the very last seconds of sunset. Green flashes happen when the normally mild refraction of Earth's atmosphere is amplified by a mirage. "The mirage occurs when there is warm air immediately over the ocean and the air temperature gradient changes rapidly with height," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "For the flash to be visible the warm air layers must be below you." "The air was still and very hot; I knew the conditions were favorable," says Lance. "This was the longest green flash I've ever seen!" more images: from Paul Edmondson of Point Reyes, CA; from Wolfgang Ott of Stuttgart, Germany; from James Helmericks of Colville River Delta, Northern Alaska; April 2009 Aurora Gallery [previous Aprils: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002] Explore the Sunspot Cycle |