AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 14th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE. | | | PROMINENCE ALERT: Resembling a gigantic "wall of flame," a huge prominence is spreading along the sun's eastern limb today, reports Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. He snapped this picture through a break in clouds. "If you get a chance, go out and look at this impressive prominence before it fades," he urges. [solar telescopes] more images: from C. Miller and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana INTENSE NLCs: Summer is the season for noctilucent clouds. Right on cue, the summer solstice brought a wave of bright NLCs to the British Isles. "The clouds appeared quite suddenly ... probably the brightest I've ever seen," reports Paul Evans of Larne, Northern Ireland on June 20th. Nearby Maghaberry resident John C McConnell snapped this picture of the display: "The clouds were so bright, they would have been spotted by members of the public with even a casual glance," says Martin McKenna who watched the show from Maghera, Northern Ireland. "Glowing tendrils seemed to change size and shape by the minute with subtle colours such as electric blue, orange, and even green. I couldn't take my eyes away from it." As regular readers know, these glow-in-the-dark clouds are a 100+ year old mystery under investigation by NASA's AIM spacecraft. Once confined to arctic latitudes, noctilucent clouds have been spreading with recent sightings in the USA as far south as Utah, Colorado and possibly even Virginia. Check the photo gallery for observing tips and be alert for noctilucent clouds! 2008 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery ["Noctilucent Clouds"--the song] [NLC Basics] SOLSTICE SHADOWS: Northern summer has just begun and for residents of Earth's northern hemisphere today's noontime sun is as high as it ever gets. This can produce some unusual shadows. Inspect the picture below and see if you can guess what's strange about it. Photographer Quanzhi Ye of Xiaoguwei, Guangzhou, China explains: "There is a shallow texture (depth ~1mm) on the bricks on our domitory. Because of the 89.8o altitude of the sun, the shallow texture casts long shadows on the wall, which is quite an unique scene." Readers, at noon today, look down at your feet, up along walls, beneath trees. You may find a unique scene of your own. more images: from Mark D. Marquette of Gray, Tennessee
May 2008 Aurora Gallery [Aurora Alerts] [Night-sky Cameras] |