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SPACE STATION MARATHON:
This week, the International Space Station
is making a remarkable series of flybys over the United States.
It's a veritable marathon.
Once, twice and sometimes three times a day, people can see the
massive outpost cutting across the starry sky. Check the Simple
Satellite Tracker for flyby times.
SUDDEN SUNSPOT:
What a difference 48 hours can make. Only two days ago the sun was
blank and calm, displaying the sort of unrelenting quiet we've come
to expect from the deepest solar minimum in a century. Then, with
startling rapidity, sunspot 1024 burst onto the scene: movie.
Unlike other recent "sun-specks", this active region is
a full-fledged sunspot group with more than a dozen planet-sized
dark cores, crackling with B-
and C-class solar flares.
"Sunspot 1024 is putting on a spectacular show," says
amateur astronomer David Tyler of Buckinghamshire UK, who caught
it in mid-flare on July 5th:
"This is the best sunspot I've seen in two years," agrees
Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California. "Here
is a one-hour time lapse movie of activity in the sunspot's core.
It is exciting to watch."
The magnetic polarity of sunspot 1024 identifies it as a member
of new Solar Cycle 24. That makes sense. New research shows that
solar
jet streams are beginning to stimulate new-cycle sunspot production.
Sunspot 1024 appears to be a sign of the process at work, heralding
more to come. Monitoring
is encouraged.
more images: from
Stefano Sello of Pisa, Italy; from
Therese van Nieuwenhoven of Laukvik, Lofoten islands, Norway;
from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
T. Emerson and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from
Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from
Britta Suhre of Dortmund, Germany; from
Deirdre Kelleghan of Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland; from
Roman Vanur of Nitra, Slovakia; from
Ehsan Rostamizadeh of Kerman, Iran; from
Leslie Marczi of Welland, Ontario, Canada; from
Rolando De Michiel of Bonnet Bay, Sydney, Australia
PALE BLUE SUN:
For the third day in a row, citizens of Iran are finding themselves
in a fog of blowing sand and dust. "A huge sandstorm hit Tehran
yesterday," reports Farzad Zamanfar. "To my amazement,
this caused the sun to turn blue." He photographed the phenomenon
using his Canon
5D:
Yes, dust storms can turn the sun blue. It happens when the storm
contains many particles about 1 micron (millionth of a meter) in
diameter. This is just the right size to make the cloud of dust
act as a blue color filter. Dust
can cloud the night sky, too. Iranian sky watchers should be alert
for blue Moons after
sunset.
more images: from
Mohamad Soltanolkottabi of Esfahan, Iran
2009
Sarychev Sunset Gallery
[See also: 2008
Kasatochi Sunset Photo Gallery]
2009
Noctilucent Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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