SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: Polar geomagnetic unrest is possible on July 23rd when a stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from an equatorial hole in the sun's atmosphere. Sky watchers should be alert for high-latitude auroras, especially in the southern hemisphere where winter darkness favors visibility. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
SOYUZ DOCKS WITH THE ISS ON APOLLO ANNIVERSARY: Fifty years have passed since the astronauts of Apollo 11 made footprints on the Moon. Amid the celebrations, one cannot help but reflect on the decades that have passed since humans visited another world. It's been a long time. Fortunately, space agencies of the world are still practicing the mechanics of exploration. Martin Lewis of St. Albans, UK, witnessed one of those exercises on July 20, 2019, when a Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station in Earth orbit:
"I was alerted to the rare possibility of capturing a shot of the Soyuz craft that was launched afternoon yesterday docking with the ISS by @metrolinaszabi of The Space Station Guys and thought I would have a try with my hand-guided home-built Dobsonian telescope," says Lewis. "The timing was perfect and I got a nice shot of the ISS and the Soyuz waiting to dock."
Lewis captured the photo 50 years to the day after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon. How times have changed. While the Apollo program was prompted by international competition, the ISS is an example of cooperation. The Soyuz spacecraft carried an American astronaut, an Italian flight engineer and a Russian commander. Future missions to other worlds may be crewed by a similar mix. Meanwhile, the practicing continues.
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LASER-ETCHED MOON CUBE: Last week, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This unique laser-etched Moon cube went along for the ride, ascending to an altitude of 101,140 feet:
You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these cubes as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program. It's an authentic representation of the Moon, with all of the craters, mountains and lava plains accurately portrayed.
Each Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. 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 sales support hands-on STEM education
COLORFUL THUNDERSTORM: In science fiction movies, towering thunderheads boil with color ... just before the spaceship emerges. Last week in Cincinnati, Ohio, photographer Jun Lao almost had a sci-fi experience. All that was missing was the spaceship:
"A thunderstorm supercell bore down on Cincinnati bringing heavy rain," says Lao. "The tops of the clouds were strangely colored."
"Jun's sighting was unusual," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "The spectral color progression from red at top through to blues beneath tells us that this was a fragment of a circumhorizon arc--a band of exceptionally pure color caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals."
"The really rare feature is the arc's presence within the tip of the storm cloud's anvil," says Cowley. "It's cold enough up there for ice crystals to form, but the anvil is normally much too dense. Circumhorizon arcs need thin clouds so that sunlight shines through just one crystal and does not intercept any more. Jun was lucky in that the anvil's thin wispy edges were just in the right position!"
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