SpaceWeather.com Archive — Fri, Aug 13, 2021

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SPOTLESS SOLAR FLARE: Who needs sunspots? On Friday, Aug. 13th (2108 UT), a spotless region near the center of the solar disk unleashed a C1-class solar flare: movie. The impulsive explosion created a mild wave of ionization over the Pacific Ocean (map) potentially altering the propagation of radio transmissions below ~5 MHz. Solar Flare alerts: SMS Text.

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER: Friday the 13th is a lucky day for sky watchers. The annual Perseid meteor shower is peaking as Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Last night, international observers counted as many as 65 meteors per hour, while NASA all-sky cameras recorded 84 Perseid fireballs over the USA.

In Alberta, Canada, John David McKinnon photographed a Perseid cutting through auroras over the Mountain Portage Rapids of Slave River:

"I got lucky and caught a Perseid falling as the Aurora Borealis danced over the rapids," says McKinnon. "I also caught a partial reflection of the Perseid in a water puddle in the foreground."

Meanwhile in Dresden, Germany, Sylvio Müller watched a Perseid explode in the constellation Cassiopeia:

"This was a very bright meteor," says Müller. "The debris cloud could be seen twisting in high-altitude winds for about 4 minutes."

Realtime Perseid Photo Gallery
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THIS MOONSTONE HAS TOUCHED SPACE: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from the edge of space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this one wrapped in a hand-crafted sterling silver Celtic love knot 35.1 km (115,158 feet) above Earth's surface:

You can have it for $179.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.