HAPPY PI DAY: March 14th (3.14) is 
day, and all around the world pi-philes are celebrating one of the most compelling and mysterious constants of Nature. Pi appears in equations describing the orbits of planets, the colors of auroras, the structure of DNA. The value of is woven into the fabric of life, the universe and ... everything.
Humans have struggled to calculate for thousands of years. Divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter; the ratio is . Sounds simple, but the devil is in the digits. While the value of is finite (a smidgen more than 3), the decimal number is infinitely long:
3.1415926535897932384626433832795
02884197169399375105820974944592307
81640628620899862803482534211706...more
Supercomputers have succeeded in calculating more than 2700 billion digits and they're still crunching. The weirdest way to compute : throw toothpicks at a table or frozen hot dogs on the floor. Party time.
NORTHERN LIGHTS BALLOON LAUNCH: This week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus are in Abisko, Sweden, releasing a series of space weather balloons into the stratosphere. On March 13th, the team conducted a midnight launch from the frozen surface of Lake Tornetrask:
The balloon carried two low-light cameras into the stratosphere for photography of the Northern Lights. A flamboyant outburst of pink auroras thrilled the students as they snowmobiled to the launch site, and a subtle display of green was underway as the balloon was launched. We will find out if our experimental cameras captured any of this after the payload is recovered from the Arctic backcountry tomorrow.
Alongside the auroracams, x-ray and gamma-ray sensors traveled to the stratosphere as well. We are investigating how cosmic rays penetrate the Arctic atmosphere. Our first launch two days ago revealed that the radiation profile of the atmosphere inside the Arctic Circle is interestingly different from profiles we have obtained for years at lower latitudes. Stay tuned for updates!
THE TRANSFORMATION OF VENUS, CONTINUED: On March 25th, Venus will pass almost directly between Earth and the sun--an event astronomers call "inferior solar conjunction." As Venus approaches the sun, the planet is turning its night side toward Earth, reducing its luminous glow to a thin sliver. Astrophotographer Raffaello Lena of Rome, Italy, has been monitoring the transformation:
"I've just added an image from March 10th to this composite," says Lena. "It clearly shows the transformation of Venus to a skinny crescent."
You don't need such a large telescope to see the shape of Venus. Even ordinary binoculars will show the crescent. Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor Venus in the lead-up to inferior conjunction. In the nights ahead, the crescent of Venus will become increasingly thin and circular. The horns of the crescent might actually touch when the Venus-sun angle is least on March 25th.
Inferior conjunction is arguably the most beautiful time to observe Venus--but also the most perilous. The glare of the nearby sun magnified by a telescope can damage the eyes of anyone looking through the eyepiece. Anthony J. Cook of the Griffith Observatory has some advice for observers:
"I have observed Venus at conjunction, but only from within the shadow of a building, or by adding a mask to the front end of the telescope to fully shadow the optics from direct sunlight. This is tricky with a refractor or a catadioptric, because the optics start at the front end of the tube. Here at Griffith Observatory, I rotate the telescope dome to make sure the lens of the telescope is shaded from direct sunlight, even through it means that the lens will be partially blocked when aimed at Venus. With our Newtonian telescope, I add a curved cardboard mask at the front end of the tube to shadow the primary mirror."
For the rest of this week Venus can still be observed without elaborate precautions in deep twilight after sunset. Every evening the crescent grows and narrows. Monitor the realtime photo gallery for updates:
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery