DON'T FORGET THE CONJUNCTION: Tomorrow morning, Jan. 22nd, Venus and Jupiter will have a close encounter in the pre-dawn sky--less than 3 degrees apart. The two bright planets will be easy to see even from light-polluted cities. It's a great way to start the day! [sky map]
THE SOLAR WIND IS COMING: A hole in the sun's atmosphere is facing Earth, and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible when the gaseous material arrives on Jan. 23rd and 24th. High-latitude sky watchers, especially those around the Arctic Circle, should be alert for auroras. Aurora Alerts: SMS text, email.
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUPERMOON: Last night's full Moon was unusually big and strangely colorful. Millions of people on five continents watched as the supermoon passed through the shadow of our planet, turning the gray lunar disk coppery-red. Richard Bell sends this picture of totality from Kalamazoo, Michigan:
The shadow crossing occurred within 14 hours of perigee, the Moon's closest approach to Earth. This made the Moon a "supermoon," almost 8% wider and 16% brighter than an average full Moon. Browse our realtime photo gallery for the latest images of a truly super lunar eclipse.
Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER ALERTS: Spaceweather.com is proud to announce our new and improved space weather alert system. Sign up now and you'll never miss another solar storm in 2019. Subscribers receive instant text messages when there are solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and CMEs about to strike Earth. And if you sign up for the PRO PLAN, you'll receive a type of alert available no where else--"Magnetic Crack" alerts. Keep reading after the graphic to learn more:
PRO PLAN subscribers get a text message whenever a crack is opening in Earth's magnetosphere. Magnetic cracks are caused by south-pointing magnetic fields ("BsubZ") in the solar wind, which partially cancel Earth's magnetic defenses. Solar wind pours in through these cracks to fuel bright auroras and geomagnetic storms. Veteran aurora chasers know that watching "BsubZ" is the best way to anticipate geomagnetic activity. Now your cell phone can do this job for you, alerting you when cracks are forming in the invisible magnetic field overhead.
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery