SUNSET SKY SHOW: When the sun goes down tonight, look west into the fading glow of sunset for an exquisitely slender crescent Moon. It forms a scalene triangle with Mars and Mercury on the edge of the constellation Pisces: sky map.
SOLAR WIND STORM: For the 3rd consecutive day, our planet is inside a stream of fast-moving solar wind flowing from a canyon-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere. The gaseous material is pressing against Earth's magnetic field with speeds exceeding 600 km/s. Earth's response: A light show around the poles. Last night, Layton Findlater saw the Southern Lights shining through clouds over Invercargill, New Zealand:
"Another night of brief but intense auroras," says Findlater. "Hopefully, we can make it three nights running here in the Deep South."
At the moment, the solar wind shows little sign of flagging. Speeds between 600 and 700 km/s are likely for the rest of March 29th with a 25% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers on both ends of the planet should remain alert for auroras. Free: Aurora Alerts
'DIAMOND DUST' ICE HALOS: Northern Spring has arrived--but it is still cold above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. On March 27th, ice crystals filled the air of the Coleville River Delta on the state's north coast. When sunlight hit the glittering atmosphere, this is what happened:
"An incredible network of ice halos surrounded the sun," says photographer James Helmericks. "It started around 12:30 pm with an ordinary 22 degree halo and some sundogs. As the sun sank lower into the afternoon sky, many other halos appeared, including a 360 degree parhelic circle, a bright circumzenithal arc, a 46 degree halo, and more." (Readers can go halo-hunting in this picture using a finder-chart from the South Pole.)
The variety and sharpness of this halo display is a sign that the sun was shining through "diamond dust"--jewel-like ice crystals of exceptional purity that form in cold polar environments. Indeed, a close look at Helmericks' picture shows specks of light in the air. Those are the glittering crystals of diamond dust which make these halos so beautiful.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
TOUCHING THE EDGE OF SPACE: On March 10, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a space weather balloon from the frozen surface of Lake Tornetrask 250 km inside the Arctic Circle. A payload-full of reindeer pendants hitched a ride 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 telling the story of its journey 97,000 feet above the Lapland of Northern Sweden. They make great Birthday and Mother's Day gifts.
More far-out gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky store. All proceeds support STEM education and our atmospheric cosmic ray monitoring program.