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Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name
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AURORA ALERT:
High-latitude sky watchers, be alert for auroras.
Earth is entering a solar wind stream and the encounter is causing
geomagnetic storms. This morning in Alaska, "the auroras were
so bright they lit
up the mountains with an emerald green color," reports
Dave Taylor from the Matanuska Glacier. Across the Bering Strait
in Russia, an equally dramatic
display was observed.
THE VIEW FROM ABOVE:
When auroras flare up, a great place to
be is Earth orbit. Here is the view from the International Space
Station (ISS), 200 miles high:
Crewmembers took the picture during a mild geomagnetic storm on
Feb. 1st. At the time, the ISS was orbiting over the Bay of St.
Lawrence and the camera (a Nikon
D2Xs) pointing north with a view of Quebec and Newfoundland.
More images: #1,
#2,
#3,
#4,
#5.
Although the auroras appear to be below the ISS, they are in fact
at about the same altitude. Indeed, from time to time, the space
station flies right through the Northern Lights--an indescribable
experience according to astronauts who have been there.
Will they experience the indescribable this weekend? A solar wind
stream is again buffeting Earth's magnetic field and this could
result in a lovely show for the combined crews of the ISS and space
shuttle Atlantis. Stay tuned!
SIGHTINGS:
Last night in Wirral, UK, John Locker trained his 8-inch telescope
on the International Space Station flying overhead and witnessed
a brilliant flare from the station's starboard solar array:
Click to view the movie
Briefly, "the visual magnitude of the station
reached -5," says Locker. (That's almost twice as bright as
Venus.) "Sunlight hitting the solar array gave the complex
a nice warm glow."
Recent construction has expanded the space station,
making it an increasingly bright and easy target for backyard
telescopes. Sky watchers in Europe and North America, ready
your optics for a series of favorable flybys in the evenings ahead:
flyby alerts.
EXTRA: Radek Grochowski of Swidnica,
Poland, notes that "the space station has grown so large, you
don't even need a telescope to see its basic shape. I took these
pictures using nothing but a handheld Nikon
D300 digital camera and a telephoto lens.
more images: from
Albert Engert of Reichenberg, BY, Germany; from
Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands; from
Marc Rathmann of Rosslau, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany; from
Martin Wagner of Sonnenbuehl - Genkingen, Germany; from
Quentin Déhais of Normandy, France; from
Robert Malmström of Reutlingen - Rommelsbach, Germany; from
Francesco De Comite of Mouscron Belgium; from
Roy Keeris of Zeist, The Netherlands; from
Andy Taylor of Fleet, Hampshire, UK; from
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