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. | | |
THIN SOLAR WIND, FAINT AURORAS: A low-density stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field today. The breeze is not potent enough to spark full-fledged geomagnetic storms, but it is moving the needles of magnetometers around the Arctic circle. Resulting faint auroras are being overwhelmed by lunar glare and spring twilight. Space weather alerts: text, voice.
EDGE-ON SUNSPOT: Big sunspot AR1726 rotated off the Earthside of the sun yesterday, surmounting the west limb of the solar disk as it headed for the sun's farside. With exquisite timing, amateur astronomer Harald Paleske of Langendorf, Germany, took the opportunity to photograph a sunspot, edge-on:
To create this extraordinary composite image, he assembled several exposures from his 225mm Unigraph solar telescope into a single panorama spanning more than 150,000 km. It shows a maelstrom of magnetic turbulence and heaving plasma--a true solar storm.
The last time we saw it clearly, AR1726 had a delta-class magnetic field that harbored energy for powerful X-class solar flares. The flare-threat has now shifted to the farside of the sun. Earth is safe, but Mercury and Mars are in the line of fire. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
RESUMING COMMUNICATIONS WITH MARS: For much of April, NASA's communications with Mars have been suspended as the Red Planet passed behind the sun. Transmissions are resuming again this weekend. SOHO coronagraphs show Mars emerging from solar conjunction:
According to a NASA press release, command transmissions will resume, but with some restrictions for the next few days. By May 1st, the Mars orbiters will begin a full dump of data accumulated during the blackout period. Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter could have about 40 gigabits of data from its own science instruments and about 12 gigabits of data from Curiosity stored for sending to Earth.
SLIGHT LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Thursday night, the full Moon over Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia passed through the outer edge of Earth's shadow. It was the slightest of eclipses, with less than 2% of the lunar disk falling into darkness. Nevertheless, many sky watchers noticed, such as amateur astronomer Walter Borghini. He sends this picture of the shadow-zone from Casasco (AL), Italy:
As for lunar eclipses, this is as good as it gets until April 15, 2014. On that date, the the Moon will be fully engulfed by Earth's shadow and the lunar disk will turn a dark shade of sunset red. The total eclipse will be visible from the Americas and Australia: map. Until then, browse the gallery for images of last night's partial shadowfall:
Realtime Lunar Eclipse Photo Gallery
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]