COMET ATLAS CLOSEST APPROACH TO EARTH: Today, Nov. 14th, Comet ATLAS (C/2020 M3) is only 54 million km Earth, its closest approach. You can find it at after midnight close to the bright star Bellatrix in the constellation Orion. The 8th magnitude green comet is invisible to the naked eye, but is an easy target for cameras and backyard telescopes. Sky maps: Nov. 14, 15, 16.
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendar. On Dec. 14, 2020, the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, producing a total solar eclipse--the only one this year. The path of totality cuts across southern Chile and Argentina, as shown in this new video from space artist Larry Koehn:
At maximum, the sun will be hidden for 2 minutes and 10 seconds, revealing the sun's ghostly corona to onlookers inside the Moon's shadow. The sky will darken, a cool breeze will move across the landscape, and night birds will sing at midday. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a million.
Normally, a solar eclipse prompts warnings of eye safety. Wear your eclipse glasses! This year it's important to wear a mask as well. The eclipse is occurring during a global pandemic. To prevent it from becoming a super-spreader event, crowds should obey all local masking and social distancing ordinances.
Above: A word cloud from Chile's official COVID website shows cities with high infection rates.
Most of the people who see the eclipse will be in Chile. The path of totality passes directly through the country's 3rd largest tourist area including popular resort destinations Pucon and Villarrica. Chile will open its borders to international travelers with negative COVID-19 tests on Nov. 30th, allowing access to the eclipse zone. Using a government website, travelers can explore infection rates along the path of totality. Unfortunately, the largest city in the path of totality, Temuco (population 220,000) is in complete lockdown, so eclipse chasers need to be very careful indeed.
Spaceweather.com has local photographers on the ground in Chile who will be sending us pictures during the eclipse. Stay tuned for a live view of the greatest show on Earth! (One month from now.)
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BLUE AURORA SPACE PENDANT: Inspired by the rarest of all auroras--blue ones--the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this pendant onboard a cosmic ray balloon. On Oct 24th, it soared to the stratosphere 102,362 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling blue aurora pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
The pendant's face shows an outburst of blue auroras, caused by the solar wind activating ionized nitrogen molecules at the top of Earth's atmosphere. A howling Arctic Wolf is silhouetted in the foreground.
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