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MARS
AT OPPOSITION: Mars is approaching
opposition. On March 3-5, the Red Planet will be
up all night long, opposite the sun and as close
to Earth as it will get in 2012. Mars shines overhead
at midnight 6 times brighter than a 1st magnitude
star and looks great through a backyard telescope.
[sky map]
[photos: #0,
#1,
#2,
#3,
#4]
END
OF FEBRUARY AURORAS: February is
coming to an end with a flourish of auroras. A CME
impact followed by a gusty solar wind stream have
combined to produce bright lights around the Arctic
Circle on Feb. 26-28. Photographer Nenne Åman recorded
the scene last night in Revi, Sweden:
"The show was short but very
beautiful!" says Åman.
Because 2012 is a leap year, February
isn't finished yet. Arctic sky watchers should be
alert tonight for some of the rarest auroras of
all--those that occur on Feb.
29th. Aurora alerts:
text,
phone.
more images: from
Christina Hammock of Barrow, Alaska; from
Laaksonen Juha of Luvia, Finland; from
Thomas Albin of Esrange, Sweden; from
Antti Niiranen of Central Finland; from
Carolyn Bol of Helensburgh, Scotland; from
Dennis Mammana of Fairbanks, Alaska; from
Sangku Kim of Canada Yellowknife; from
Chad Blakley of Abisko National Park, Sweden;
from
Kaj Hoglund of Vaasa, Finland; from
Kaj Hoglund of Vaasa, Finland; from
Graeme Whipps of Chapel Of Garioch, Aberdeenshire;
from
Hannu Hyvönen of Ruuhimäki, Finland;
February
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Februaries: 2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002]
AFTER-IMAGES:
The planetary
conjunction of Feb. 26-27 is over now, but photographers
are still processing and submitting their images.
For sky watchers who missed the show, here is one
last round of images, beginning with a video from
an abandoned ski run in northern Nebraska:
"The combination of planets with
pale moon light, deep twilight colors, and the motion
blur of clouds during a long exposure was enthralling,"
says photographer Chris Allington.
As the three-way meeting of Jupiter,
Venus and the Moon breaks up, attention turns to
the other side of the sky where Mars is approaching
Earth for a close encounter on March 3-5. "Turn
your back on the dazzling duo of Jupiter and Venus
and you can see the third bright planet of the season
rising in the east -- Mars!" says astronomy
professor Jimmy Westlake of Stagecoach, Colorado.
He took this
picture of the red planet on Feb. 27th.
more images: from
Constantine Emmanouilidi in the Pieria mountains
of Greece; from
Darryl Reid at The Hoodoos in the Canadian Badlands;
from
Ronald Mochinski of Warrenton, Virginia; from
Sue Stefanowicz of Dixon, IL; from
James W. Young of Ecola State Park, Oregon;
from
Mike Holloway of Van Buren, AR; from
Kamila Mazurkiewicz of Puławy, Poland;
from Petr Horálek of the Academy of Sciences
of the Czech Republic; from
Jun Lao of Mason, Ohio; from
Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland;
