CORRECTED FORECAST: A hole in the sun's atmosphere is turning toward Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. Estimated time of arrival: Aug. 27th. Minor geomagnetic unrest and high-latitude auroras are possible when the gaseous material arrives. Correction: An earlier version of this forecast mis-identified this hole as the same one that sparked geomagnetic storms on Aug. 5th. Wrong. The Aug. 5th coronal hole is following behind this one by about 4 days. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.

IS THIS THE WORLD'S NEXT GREAT OBSERVATORY? Imagine peering through a telescope on a remote Tibetan plateau so high that 50% of Earth's atmosphere is beneath your feet. In fact, there is such a place--the Ali observatory on the Ngari Plateau 5100 meters (16,700 ft) above sea level in southwestern Tibet. Jeff Dai was there two nights ago, and he took this picture of the night sky

"The skies are extremely dark," says Dai. "Preliminary weather and atmospheric data suggest that Ngari could rival high-altitude facilities at Mauna Kea, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the Canary Islands."

The observatory is so high that astronomers sometimes faint if they exert themselves too much in the thin air. Currently eight telescopes with diameters of 25 cm to 50 cm are located on site--and astronomical observations aren't all that's happening. Using lasers at the observatory, Chinese scientists have also carried out quantum teleportation experiments, entangling photons on the plateau and at the Micius satellite in Earth orbit.

Astronomers have long recognized the potential of the Tibetan Plateau, which has the highest average elevation of any region on Earth. Read more about it in the AAAS news report: China’s ambitious telescopes rise in the thin air of the Tibetan Plateau.

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APOLLO 11 PROOF SILVER DOLLARS: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus weren't even born when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in 1969 years ago. Nevertheless, they "get it." On July 20th, the students launched 50 Apollo 11 silver dollars to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray balloon. The coins touched the edge of space 50 years to the day after Neil and Buzz made footprints in the Sea of Tranquillity:

You can have one for $197.95. The students are selling these coins to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Quantities are limited and more than half have already been sold. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.

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