ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE: Something strange is about to happen to sunbeams in the southern hemisphere. On Sunday, Feb. 26th, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, covering as much as 99% of the solar disk. It's an annular solar eclipse, shown here in an animation from ShadowandSubstance.com:
Annular eclipses occur when the Moon passes dead center in front of the sun, but does not completely cover it. At maximum eclipse, an intense "ring of fire" surrounds the mountainous limb of the Moon.
The narrow path of annularity snakes across five countries: Chile and Argentina in South America; Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia in Africa. People in those countries can see the ring of fire for almost a minute and a half. Outside that path, the eclipse will be partial. This means the sun will turn into a crescent—a slender one near the path of annularity and a fatter one away from it. Caution: Always use safe solar filters to observe the sun.
Observers in the eclipse zone are encouraged to look down as well--for instance, at the sun-dappled ground beneath leafy trees. The sight of a thousand crescent-shaped sunbeams swaying back and forth on a grassy lawn or sidewalk is unforgettable.
Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
SPACE REINDEER: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are about to travel inside the Arctic Circle (Abisko, Sweden) for their first polar space weather balloon launch. To raise money for the trip, on Feb. 23rd they flew a payload-full of Arctic reindeer pendants to the edge of space:
You can have one for $129.95. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and certifying that it has been to the stratosphere and back again. These pendants make great Birthday and Mother's Day gifts.
Bonus: Would you like your pendant to be flown over the Arctic as well? Make a note to that effect in the COMMENTS box at checkout, and we will take your pendent to Sweden for a second trip to the stratosphere.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
AURORA ROCKET LAUNCH: On Feb. 22nd, shortly after midnight, bright green auroras erupted over Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range. Researchers from Dartmouth College promptly launched a rocket into the glowing maelstrom. Photographer Marketa Murray of Fairbanks captured the event in a perfectly-timed self-portrait:
"We tuned into the Poker Flat Research Range radio for a heads-up that the rocket was about to launch," explains Murray. "The picture shows both stages of the Black Brant IX sounding rocket burning for the ionosphere."
The goal of the mission, named ISINGLASS (Ionospheric Structuring: In Situ and Groundbased Low Altitude Studies) is to decipher the mysterious shapes of the aurora borealis. Some auroras look like flames, others like swirls, ripples or curtains. The rocket was designed to scatter an array of sensors into the auroral zone, mapping the particles and fields underlying these forms.
"Auroras are the last step of a chain of processes connecting the solar wind to the atmosphere," says Dr. Kristina Lynch of Dartmouth, the mission's principal investigator. "We are seeking to understand what structure in these visible signatures can tell us about the electrodynamics of processes higher up."
"It was a beautiful launch with an extensive set of collaborative ground based data, and will make a great study," she says.
Ultimately, the results could allow researchers to look up at the sky and, based on little more than the shapes they see, predict conditions at the edge of space. Was the mission a success? Stay tuned for updates from the launch team.