Did you sleep through the auroras of Dec. 14th? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.
RE-ENTRY ALERT: The third stage of a Tsyklon 3 rocket is due to re-enter Earth's atmosphere tonight, Jan. 7th-8th. This is a piece of a Russian rocket launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Nov. 1990--so it has been in orbit for 16+ years! The re-entry could take place over the central or western USA. Sky watchers, be alert for fireballs. Orbit details: #1, #2.
BRIGHTENING COMET: Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) is plunging toward the Sun and brightening dramatically. Alan Dyer of Cluny, southern Alberta, Canada, took this picture at sunset on Jan. 6th:
Photo details: Canon 20D, 200mm lens, f/2.8, ISO100, ~1 second exposure.
"The comet is bright in the evening twilight, easily visible through binoculars. I estimate its magnitude to be -1," says Dyer. To find the comet, he advises, face the sunset and look to the right of Venus.
The comet is also visible in the morning sky. It hugs the eastern horizon, emerging just ahead of the rising sun. Scan the horizon with binoculars to find it beaming through the glow of dawn.
"I just got home from observing the comet--Wow, what a beauty!" reports Doug Zubenel near Topeka, Kansas. "I could barely make it out with my naked eyes 2o above the horizon. But with my 6-inch binocular telescope at 25-power, it looked just like the photos you've been running the past couple of days."
Comet McNaught Photo Gallery
[finder charts: morning and evening] [ephemeris] [3D orbit]
STRANGE PILLAR: Last night (Jan. 7th) in the Netherlands, a strange and beautiful pillar of light appeared among the clouds. "It was right above a Dow chemical plant in Terneuzen," reports Rijk-Jan Koppejan of the Philippus Lansbergen Observatory. A flame of burning gas at the plant beamed intense light into the sky, producing a sight akin to a sun pillar--no sun required:
Photo details: Canon 10D, Sigma 12mm lens, ASA 200, f/4.5
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Like sun pillars, these 'candles in the sky' are formed by reflections from millions of plate-shaped ice crystals in high clouds. Sometimes, reflections of refinery and oil-rig flares are seen tens of miles away." (This one was photographed as far away as Belgium.)
more images: from Bart De Bruyn of Westdorpe, The Netherlands; from Marc Persan in Gent, Belgium; from Lode Verhelst of Ursel, Belgium.