WEEKEND AURORA WATCH: Minor geomagnetic storms and Arctic auroras are likely on Nov. 12th and 13th as Earth moves deeper into a stream of high-speed solar wind. Visibility of auroras will be muted somewhat by the glare of the waxing supermoon. Browse: Aurora Photo Gallery
ROCKET PHOTOBOMBS AURORA OUTBURST: Last night in Sweden, aurora tour guide Oliver Wright led a group of 8 under the starry skies of Abisko National Park hoping for a glimpse of the aurora borealis. "Suddenly," says Wright, "one of the guests shouted what's that? "I grabbed my binoculars and saw this amazing crescent-shaped thing moving slowly across the sky." It was not the aurora borealis:
"I had never seen anything like it," says Wright, "so I called Chad Blakley of Lights over Lapland, and he confirmed that his live webcam saw it too." A four-frame animation shows it moving slowly across the sky for more than 20 minutes.
What was it? Mystery solved: Earlier in the day, an Atlas V rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying the Worldview 4 satellite to orbit. Later, the rocket's Centaur upper stage vented its excess fuel, creating the ghostly cloud over Sweden.
For Wright and his guests, the show was far from over. "A huge aurora started to develop around the Moon and became a magnificent corona above our heads," he says. This is a 1/2 second exposure:
"It was moving super fast--the fastest corona I've seen in 3 years of guiding," says Wright. "In the end we had some super happy guests and a super happy guide!"
THE BIGGEST FULL MOON IN ALMOST 70 YEARS: On Monday, Nov. 14th, there's going to be a full Moon--the biggest and brightest in almost 70 years. The best time to look in North America is before sunrise on Monday morning, while in Europe the best time is after sunset on the same day.
"The last time we had such a close full Moon was January 26, 1948," says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory, "and it won't happen again until November 25, 2034."
Full moons vary in size because the Moon's orbit is not a circle, it's an ellipse: diagram. One side of the Moon's orbit, called "perigee," is 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other side, "apogee." This Monday's "supermoon" becomes full about 2 hours away from perigee, a coincidence that makes it as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons we have seen in the past.
But will we be able to tell the difference ... just by looking? A 30% difference in brightness can easily be masked by clouds or the glare of urban lights. Also, there are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon looks much like any other.
"I think that the hype over the term 'supermoon' is a bit overblown," says Chester. "In my book every full Moon has something to offer!"
To get the most out of Monday's apparition, try to catch the Moon just as it is rising or setting. This will activate the Moon Illusion and make the perigee Moon of Nov. 14th look super, indeed.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
FLIGHT OF THE SPACE PICKLE: Did you know that cosmic radiation in Earth's atmosphere is increasing? It's true. These and other findings of the Earth to Sky Calculus ballooning program are funded not by government grants or corporate donations. Instead, we rely on crowdfunding. Hence, the flight of the space pickle:
To raise funds for their ongoing research, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew two dozen Christmas pickles to the stratosphere. On Nov. 5th, the glass gherkins ascended to an altitude of 111,900 feet, experiencing temperatures as low as -55 C and cosmic ray dose rates more than 100x Earth normal.
You can have one for your own tree. Price: $49.95. All proceeds are used to support cutting-edge student research. The space pickle and other edge of space gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store.