FARSIDE ACTIVE REGIONS: NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is monitoring a number of active regions located just behind the sun's eastern limb: image. Some of them may be sunspots associated with the recent spate of farside CMEs. Solar rotation will bring them into view within the next ~3 days. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SPACE STATION 'SOLAR FLARE': Last Thursday, Phil Smith was watching the Interational Space Station glide above his house in New York when, suddenly, the station more than doubled in brightness. Was it an explosion? No. Video recorded through his 14-inch telescope shows what happened:
"It was a 'solar flare'," says Smith. The station's new roll-out solar panel (iROSA) caught a beam of sunlight and redirected it toward Earth. "I was very happy to see I just imaged a part of ISS history."
Recent history, that is. iROSA is the newest addition to the ISS. It's a solar panel that literally rolls out (like a paper towel) in front of the station's original aging solar arrays. Unfurled by astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet during spacewalks in June, iROSA provides a 20% to 30% power boost compared to the older panels behind them. 'Solar flares' are a photogenic bonus.
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SPRITE SIGHTINGS: Sometmes the best place to look for lightning is *above* the clouds. On July 14th, Petr Horalek witnessed eerie red forms leaping up from an electrical storm in Proseč, the Czech Republic:
"These are sprites," says Horalek. "I just had to share my joy at seeing them."
Glowing red because of nitrogen emissions in the upper atmosphere, sprites are a kind of counter-discharge provoked by positively-charged lightning bolts striking the ground below. The ones Horalek saw were almost 95 km high.
"Severe stormy weather over central Europe has been creating sprites," says Horalek. "I caught these as large thunderstorms were crackling over the distant High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia about 320 km away."
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RARE MR. SPOCK MUG: It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a rare Mr. Spock mug. On March 21, 2021, this unique ceramic collector's item flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You cannot buy these mugs anywhere on the internet--not even Amazon. But you can have one from Earth to Sky Calculus for $170.10. That's the serial number of the Enterprise divided by 10. The mug comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again. It's a great gift for any Trekkie!
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