GEOMAGNETIC UNREST PREDICTED: Earth's polar magnetic field will be disturbed on Nov. 18th or 19th by the arrival of a high-speed stream of solar wind. The gaseous material is flowing from a relatively small hole in the sun's atmosphere. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Free: Aurora Alerts
THE LEONID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is approching a stream of debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle, source of the annual Leonid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Nov. 17th and 18th with as many as 15 meteors per hour visible in bright moonlight.
The Leonids are famous for storming. As often as a few times each century, Earth hits a dense filament of Tempel-Tuttle's dusty debris, causing thousands of meteors per hour to stream out of the constellation Leo. Such a display in 1833 kickstarted modern meteor astronomy with an outburst of 100,000 Leonids per hour. Many readers still remember the Leonid fireballs of 1998 and the meteor storms of 1999, 2001 and 2002.
2018 is not a storm year, however. Earth will thread the needle between dense filaments, scooping up a relative pittance of diffuse dust. Each speck will hit Earth's upper atmosphere at ~72 km/s (160,000 mph) producing a swift meteor emerging from a radiant in the constellation Leo. The best time time to look is during the hours before dawn on Saturday, Nov. 17th, and Sunday, Nov. 18th, when the Lion is high in the eastern sky.
Bonus: If you're up before sunrise, check out Venus near the bright star Spica as well as newly-discovered Comet Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto (C/2018 V1) in the constellation Virgo.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
A GIFT FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Don't just see the Northern Lights, wear them! To support their cosmic ray balloon program, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown a payload of Northern Light Pendants to the edge of space. This one reached an altitude 109,908 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have it for $79.95. The students are selling these pendants to pay their helium bill. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education