GET READY FOR THE TRANSIT OF MERCURY: One of the biggest astronomy events of the year happens tomorrow! On Monday, Nov 11th, Mercury will pass directly in front the sun. The transit begins at 12:35 UT (7:35 am EST) and lasts for almost six hours. Get ready: observing tips, video, photo gallery.
MOONLIT AURORAS: Bright moonlight is flooding the Arctic as the Moon waxes toward full on Nov. 12th. Last night, an outburst of auroras cut through the lunar glare. Chris Hodgson sends this picture from Abisko, Sweden:
"I was out guiding a group of tourists for Lights over Lapland," says Hodgson. "For the first hour the aurora was barely visible. But typically just after we called it a night at 11:15 pm, the whole sky lit up in a blaze of aurora. A quick evacuation of our van gave my guests a show to remember and I quickly got a couple of shots in before everything calmed again."
Even brighter auroras are possible on Nov. 11th and 12th when a solar wind stream is expected to buffet Earth's magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from a newly-formed hole in the sun's atmosphere. The full Moon will be even brighter when the solar wind arrives, but as Hodgson has shown, moonlight and auroras can mix very nicely indeed.
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THE STRATOSPHERIC CLOUD PENDANT: The most beautiful clouds on Earth are located in the stratosphere: Polar Stratospheric Clouds. Their extraordinary colors inspired this authentic Swarovski pendant--and it has been to the stratosphere! On Nov. 2, 2019, it hitched a ride 109,580 feet high on board an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon:
You can have it for $159.95. The students are selling Stratospheric Cloud Pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each heart-shaped pendant comes with a card showing it floating through the stratosphere like a real cloud, and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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