Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that
star? Get the answers from mySKY--a
fun new astronomy helper from Meade. GREAT
PERSEIDS: The Perseid meteor shower is coming, and experts
say it should be a great show. Get the full
story from Science@NASA.
WINDOW SEAT: On July 11th,
Doc Searls
was taking a redeye flight from San Francisco to London when a solar
wind stream hit Earth. High over northern Minnesota, he says, "I
looked out the window and got the treat that I seek every day in
SpaceWeather but tend to miss because I live in Santa Barbara."
In short, the aurora borealis:
"The auroras seemed to be only yards away. I
got out my Canon
30D and shot away, making liberal use of the dark blanket supplied
by United Airlines. The plane, for what it's worth, was a Boeing
777 and my seat was 14a near the front of the wing."
Another solar wind stream is due July 14th. Air travelers,
take your cameras and remember this: Seat 14a.
July
2007 Aurora Gallery
[Aurora Alerts] [Night-Sky
Cameras]
NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: The past
few nights have produced some of the year's most intense noctilucent
clouds over Europe. "In thirty years of observing NLCs, I have
never seen such odd structures," reports John
C McConnell of Maghaberry, Northern Ireland. "It was beautiful!"
[photo]
At the Lidemark Observatory in Koege, Denmark, "we were drift-aligning
our new LX200,
when it started," says Frank R. Larsen who snapped this picture
at daybreak on July 10th:
Photo details: Canon
EOS 350D, EFS 18-55mm. ISO 1600, 1-2 sec exposures.
"The Moon was up and Mars was rising in the East," he
says. "Beautiful electric-blue waves, the Moon and Mars and
a few stars combined for an awesome view."
Lately, noctilucent clouds have been creeping south with displays
over the continental USA on June
19th and July
3rd. Wherever you live, keep an eye on the western sky one to
two hours after
sunset. If you see electric-blue tendrils spreading up from
the horizon, you've probably spotted an NLC.
2007
Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
[What
are NLCs?] ["Noctilucent
Cloud"--the song]
BONUS PHOTOS--Comet Linear VZ13:
from
Dalibor Hanžl of Brno, Czech Republic; from
Paolo Candy of the Cimini Astronomical Observatory, Soriano,
Italy; from
Günther Strauch of Borken, NRW, Germany; from
Vincent Jacques of Breil, France; from
Stanescu Octavian of Silagiu, Romania; from
Doug Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas.
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