COMET NEOWISE SIGHTINGS: Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) is brightening rapidly as it passes by the sun. On July 1st, Ray Brooks of the Arizona Sky Village near Tucson saw the comet through binoculars just before sunrise. "Wow-- it was very bright, near magnitude +1," he reports. "If the comet were in dark skies at a decent elevation, it would be a spectacular naked-eye object."
It's even brighter today. "I estimate magnitude 0," says Petr Horálek of the Czech Republic, who spotted the comet this morning, July 2nd, beneath a rippling bank of noctilucent clouds (NLCs):
"While watching these (spectacular!) NLCs over Proseč u Chrudimi, I began to wonder if Comet NEOWISE could be in the view--and my hopes were fulfilled!" says Horálek. "I was able to photograph the comet using a Canon 6D digital camera (Sigma 50mm, f1.4, ISO 400, 1/2sec) despite haze and clouds near the horizon."
Oscar Martín Mesonero of Salamanca, Spain, also saw the comet in morning twilight:
Mesonero's picture, taken through an ED80 Skywatcher telescope, shows a hint of a fan-shaped or split tail. The same shape was visible in SOHO images taken last week.
"Fingers crossed that Comet NEOWISE will not die like Comets ATLAS and SWAN," says Horálek. "It could be something truly spectacular in the days ahead!"
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WHY ARE NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS SO WAVY? Anyone who's seen noctilucent clouds would agree. They are extraordinarily wavy--much more so than ordinary clouds near the surface of the Earth. Consider this example photographed by Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland:
"On the morning of June 30th, an exceptionally bright and beautiful display was visible," says Nikodem. "Even random people who went to work in the morning stopped and admired the electric-blue ripples."
What makes noctilucent clouds so wavy? The answer lies in the lower atmosphere. Powerful storm systems and other disturbances near Earth's surface send ripples of temperature and pressure up into the sky. These ripples are called "gravity waves." Gravity waves can propagate all the way up to the mesosphere, where they imprint themselves on the forms of noctilucent clouds.
Often, gravity waves break in the noctilucent zone (82-85 km above Earth's surface), dumping their energy and momentum there. Radar studies of noctilucent wave structures can trace this energy and tell researchers a great deal about upper atmospheric circulation.
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A GIFT FOR STAR WARS FANS: A good bounty hunter will go just about anywhere. On Jun 13, 2020, the Mandalorian hitched a ride to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here he is, floating 113,189 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have him for $114.95. The students of Earth to Sky are selling Mandalorian bobbleheads to raise money for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each figurine comes with a greeting card showing the bounty hunter in flight and telling the story of his journey to the edge of space and back again. They make great gifts for Star Wars fans.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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