VENUS-JUPITER CONJUNCTION: Set your alarm for dawn. Venus and Jupiter are about to have a spectacular conjunction in the early morning sky. On Nov. 13th, the two bright planets will converge just ahead of the rising sun only 0.3 degrees apart--so close that you can hide them together behind an outstretched pinky finger. A small telescope will show both planetary disks in the field of view at the same time. That's worth waking up for. Sky maps: Nov. 12, 13, 14.
SOLAR WIND SPARKS AURORAS: For the 4th day in a row, Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a wide hole in the sun's atmosphere. Last night the action of this gaseous material from our star sparked a veritable explosion of auroras over Narvik, Norway. Photographer Oliver Wright witnessed the display and says "it was the brightest and fastest corona I have seen in my four years as an aurora tour guide."
A "corona" is a form of aurora borealis that seems to rain down on observers from directly overheard. It is widely regarded as the holy grail of aurora watching--a kind of "bucket list" display. The corona over Narvik was moving so fast, it was a bit blurred in Wright's photo even with a lightning-fast 0.25 second exposure.
"This just goes to show that there are still plenty of opportunities to see amazing auroras despite the fact that we are close to Solar Minimum," says Wright, whose adventures did not end with the light show: "On the way back from the photo shoot, I had to stop for a full grown male moose with antlers to move off the road!"
Around the Arctic Circle, more auroras are in the offing. The solar wind continues to blow faster than 600 km/s, and NOAA forecasters say there is a 50% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 10th. Free: Aurora Alerts.
SPACE WEATHER BALLOONING OVER MEXICO: For the rest of this week, Spaceweather.com is reporting from Mexico. We're here to launch the first-ever space weather balloon over this country, adding a new low-laltitude outpost to our growing global balloon network:
Our collaborators are Prof. Juan Sumaya of the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de México and a group of his physics students. Together we will launch balloons over Mexico on Nov. 10th and 11th to measure cosmic radiation including X-rays, gamma-rays and neutrons. On Nov.11th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus will launch an identical payload from the Sierra Nevada mountains near Bishop, California, for comparison.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE CRYSTAL PYRAMID: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. The armada of balloons soared into the stratosphere, touching the shadow of the Moon more than 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. As a fundraiser, one of the balloons carried this pyramid, and you can have it for $139.95:
With the sun, Earth, and Moon perfectly aligned, the faces of the 5-sided crystal caught the reflection of the eclipsed sun while wrapped in the space-cold shadow of our planet's gray cratered companion. Watch the video! The payload capsule contained more crystals just like it.
Each pyramid comes with a unique gift card showing the crystal floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere and passing through the Moon's shadow. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education