BEHOLD THE SUN: Would you like to see fiery prominences and new-cycle sunspots with your own eyes? On sale now: Personal Solar Telescopes. | | | ODDBALL HOSTS: Cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts are curiously picky about where they explode. Shunning spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, gamma-ray bursts prefer to 'go off' in oddball star systems that astronomers are just beginning to understand: full story. ORIONID OUTBURST: The 2008 Orionid meteor shower put on a surprisingly good show. Observers around the world counted 40+ meteors per hour, about twice the usual rate. The display included a substantial number of fireballs and exploding meteors, like this one over Sedona, Arizona, on Tuesday morning, Oct. 21st: "The explosion left a bubble of glowing debris that expanded for at least 15 minutes," says photographer Marsha Adams. She took pictures at one minute intervals and assembled them to show the aftermath of the blast. Orionid meteors are specks of debris from Halley's Comet. The extra Orionids of 2008 probably came from a denser-than-usual filament of comet dust crossing Earth's orbit. This is the third October in a row this has happened, suggesting a trend. Maybe next year's outburst won't be such a surprise! 2008 Orionid Meteor Gallery [IMO meteor counts] [2006 Orionids] SUNSET MIRAGE: According to the California almanac, on Oct. 16th the San Francisco sun should have set at 6:30 pm sharp, yet when photographer Mila Zinkova looked at 6:36 pm the sun was still "up"--in strangely distorted form: "The explanation is simple," says Zinkova. "The picture I took was not a picture of the sun itself, but a mirage of the sun." Furthermore, she points out, there is a boat in the scene--it is the towering brown blob in the foreground! "The view was just incredible." Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains what happened: "To make this sun mirage, light from the already set sun was channelled around the curvature of the earth inside an immense atmospheric waveguide. Very strong multiple temperature inversions refracted the sun's rays to make a ducted mock-mirage sunset. The nearby boat was also miraged. The California Coast with its cold ocean currents overlaid by warm winds from the land is ideal for seeing sights like these." more images: from Aymen Ibrahem of Alexandria, Egypt; from Tamas Ladanyi of Balatonvilagos, Hungary; from Simon Thomas of Porec, Croatia; from Peter Pammer of Jauerling, Austria Oct. 2008 Aurora Gallery [Previous Octobers: 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000] |