When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms. | | | CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 23rd in response to a glancing blow from a CME. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for midnight auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice SUPERNOVA! Approximately 12 million years ago, a white dwarf star in the galaxy M82 exploded. This week, light from the distant supernova finally reached Earth. Amateur astronomers can see it through backyard telescopes as a fireball of magnitude +11.2 in one of the galaxy's dusty spiral arms. Here is the view through an 8-inch telescope on Jan. 22nd: Larry McNish took the picture from the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory in Alberta, Canada. "I used a Canon 60D DSLR at the prime focus of an 8 inch Celestron SCT telescope," he says. "This is just a single exposure of 60 seconds at ISO 6400 using a white balance of 3400K to reduce the sodium sky glow from Calgary." Although it is 12 million light years away, M82 is considered to be a next-door neighbor of the Milky Way. Indeed, this is the nearest supernova to Earth since SN 1993J was famously observed 21 years ago. The relative proximity of the blast makes it an attractive target for astronomers to study. Light curves from previous supernovas of this type suggest that the fireball could continue to brighten for the next two weeks. If you have a GOTO telescope, this evening command it to slew to the "cigar galaxy" or "M82," and watch the explosion unfold. Realtime Supernova Photo Gallery FASCINATING PHENOMENA OF JUPITER'S MOONS: On Jan. 5th, Earth passed directly between the sun and Jupiter. Astronomers call this an "opposition" because the sun and Jupiter were on opposite sides of the sky. "Jupiter's opposition is always an opportunity for beautiful pictures of moons transiting Jupiter, sometimes directly in front of their own shadows," says John H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association. "Observers have produced some fine examples from the opposition earlier this month." Some of the best are collected here: Transits around opposition are beautiful, but something even more rare and special is coming this fall. "In autumn, Jupiter's moons will begin a series of mutual eclipses and occultations," Rogers says. The satellites will criss-cross in the sky, dipping in and out of one another's shadows. Predictions by Jean Meeus have been posted by the British Astronomical Association Computing Section at these URLs. "The last time these mutual events occurred, in 2009, observers were able to produce the first high-resolution movies of moons eclipsing moons. No doubt some of you will be able to do even better this time around." Stay tuned! Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Venus Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Jan. 23, 2014, the network reported 11 fireballs. (9 sporadics, 2 xi Coronae Borealids)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] On Jan. 22, 2014, the network reported 16 fireballs. (16 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On January 23, 2014 there were 1453 potentially hazardous asteroids. Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | |